Two Shadows, One Light
by Eerie Enigma
Summary: In seven years time, Link's quest to bring peace to the land of Hyrule takes him the ancient zora ruins, the Water Temple. But something is already inside and waiting...and it looks a lot like him. The outcome may surprise everybody. Not Yaoi. See inside.
1. Fray With Fate

**A/N: Enigma here, with my second book of the Eerie Saga. I cannot say that I expect many reviews or **_**views**_** for that matter on this story prior to my earlier first book since it was based on Naruto, the more popular series, but nevertheless, you should read anyways. It is the philosophy called 'expand the horizon'. Look the horizon right in the face, and a wishing star is sure to crash **_**right**_** into you! BAM!**

**NO! This is NOT a LinkxDarkLink story; never tried a hand at Yaoi, never ever will. Likely the classic LinkxZelda. Cannot even begin telling you how mad it drives me in each game when the princess does not even give him a hug for saving the world from utter disaster – just a meager "thank you." Wow. **_**Thank you**_**, Princess Zelda. I will take that all the way home with me. Lots of people get involved in this story, many of which come from the different Legend of Zelda games. **_**Some**_** of them, however…**

**Whoops! Spoilers. (Tee-hee!) Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Legend of Zelda**

**Chapter 1: Fray With Fate**

The long, endless halls of a gigantic room flowed with elegant walls in a deepwater blue colour, but a combination of the water from below with the blend of a strange light of an unknown source protruding out of it gave way to give it an even more breathtaking feature as the ghosts of the wave lines danced their ways across the inner trimmings of an ancient, underground lake ruin. The floor was a delicate pattern of tiles following the tradition of that similar blue, perhaps a little lighter on the hue.

For decades, it retained a perfect serenity, a perfect silence, save for the ever slight sound of flowing water, lying at the bottom of a great lake, because up until now, no one saw reason to explore it. Even the Zoras, who were the ancestral protectors of the temple, did not see fit to enter for fear that they may do something to disrupt the balance of water that it kept firmly in its stead by three, alternate levels.

But this was a time of dire crisis, and a hero was needed here.

Footsteps carried from the far end of the room so far away that it seemed like a dream to the temple. The more specific sound of leather Kokiri boots treading on the magnificent tile floor, clicking softly with each step that the trekker took to get to the far end of the corridor, where he would meet up with yet another door. His arms were up over him as his hands clasped the back of his head in a relaxed pose.

A brilliant blue and white light hovered around the figure's head from a tiny source. A forest fairy. A small, enchanted whistle would emerge every moment it flew swiftly and suddenly from one side of the head to the other, carried on a pair of light, translucent wings.

"Hey!" It shouted in alarm all of a sudden.

The footsteps stopped, and the sound ceased. The figure, a man wearing a blue tunic closed his eyes and furrowed his eyebrow in frustration.

"What is it, Navi?" He asked from a clearly frustrated monotone. Obviously he had heard that word out of her before.

"Be extra careful. Something feels strange here, like my wings are getting heavier. Can't you feel it? _I_ notice it more with each step you take towards that door."

He cracked a grin. "Maybe all that water is finally getting to you. I didn't even think that fairies could get water _on_ them, let alone completely submerge themselves and fly under it."

The wings of the tiny globe of light turned their position to an opposite side to show that she was looking full front to the side of her partner's face. Although it was too bright to see first hand where she was looking, the wings were the best source to turn to for getting answers.

"Link, water is a necessity. The basics for life apply to _everyone._" She seemed to scold him for his lack of knowing.

He responded by opening his eyes and giving her a weary look from a slightly rotated head hung to the side. Of _course_ he knew that; she was just being difficult. He briefly wondered to himself how the other Kokiri children that have fairy partners survived their first week. The irony was that they had eternal youth – all the stress from that constant jibbing of one's fairy would probably be enough to give a youthful, beautiful person wrinkles over night. At least that wasn't actually the case.

Link continued to move towards the end door, facing downward, and moving his lips quietly without saying anything to go along with it. He seemed to be lost in thought. Navi assumed that he was counting his steps.

The clatter of his boots echoed up and through the room, carrying up the walls and through the ceiling. A few more prolonged seconds, and ultimately he arrived at a door that looked just like any other of the doors in the Water Temple; an ominous design crested the surface of the steel blue stone.

Link raised his arm up and outstretched it forward in front of him to reach for it, but advancement was interrupted by an ugly slurring sound permeating from behind him.

He froze in his position, expressionless, and kept his arm raised forward.

"Another one."

With one flash, he unsheathed his holy weapon off from his back, and dashed his opponent and made a quick gash across its side. The vacuum creature, known as a Like-Like, swerved in motion as the blade made contact with its jelly-like substance. It let out a blood-curling shriek in pain, an unnaturally-colored fluid slid out from under the deep cut, and Link turned his body to prepare for a second attack.

The Like-Like shot itself forward, startling Link with its incredible speed using such an obese looking body. Before he could respond directly, the suctioned maw of the beast sucked him up right off of the floor and inhaled him completely. The slurring increased in volume and pace as it kept itself upright to avoid spilling him back out.

Grunts and shifts in motion were heard from within as the Hylian hero punched and kicked the interior body to fight his way out. But Like-Likes were built for this sort of thing.

After a few good seconds of subject humiliation, the monster had its fill, and it spat Link back out into the air. He shouted as he flew a good twenty meters before hitting the floor with a hard _THUD._

"Owwww…" Link moaned slightly as he rubbed his rear-end. After he got up and dusted himself, he felt his back was unusually light. Fearing for the worst, he snapped his head back behind him and reached for his backside to feel for his shield.

Nope, no shield.

"My shield is eaten _again?_" He turned his head back and glared down his foe. "Guess I'll just have to kill it quicker then?" Metabolism for these creatures was extremely fast.

It lunged itself forward again, but Link backflipped away and in another swift motion, took his sword in hand as he landed on his two feet, and dashed through the ugly-colored beast with such speed, Navi had thought for a minute that he had teleported without the use of Farore's Wind.

He came out the other side, and without turning around to face his opponent again, sheathed the Sword onto his back.

It came for him again for a brief moment, but then it started to lag in movement and did not even realize for an instant when pieces and chunks of its mass were slithering off and trailing behind it in a grotesque manner.

It bled an ugly flavor. The entire body began to decrease in size, and it let out an unintelligible wail as the remaining mass drained away into blue dust and fire.

Link was on the lookout for his shield in the stead of where the disgusting amoeba had once been. It'd really be a shame if he had to traverse miles to the market just to pay for another one. In previous experiences, Link had his shield taken from him dozens of times; whether it was a wooden one burnt away from some Fire Keese, or a metallic one eaten by some creature that had some strange fetish for Hylian steel. Whatever the case, it wasn't in his best interest that he should lose another one.

But fortunately enough, there it lay in a heap of unidentified substance; it was dirty, but it was intact. Link gave a revolted look as he lifted it off the floor with his fingertips. Light brown ooze trickled down in the form of long strings. There'll be long hours spent trying to scrub that off.

Link hesitated with it for a moment, deciding whether he should take the shield back in as its master, or just leave it where he picked it up. He then finally just shrugged and put back onto his back to meet again with his most prized, the Master Sword.

As he turned his heels to advance forward once more, he mumbled one thing under his breath:

"Uuuuugggghhhh…I _hate_ Shield-eaters…"

* * *

Soon, Link was standing face-to-face with what seems like the fifty-sixth door that he had encountered in this place, and an awful lot of walking.

Link put his hand up against the surface of the door, which felt surprisingly cold. Well the other doors felt a tad bit cool, but this one felt _cold._ He let out a shutter at the sudden slight drop in his body temperature, and took a deep breath. Yet another room, but just _how many more?_

Not sure if he wanted to know the answer, Link nodded to his companion, and pressing the face of the door slightly more, hoisted the door open. He took a premature step forward into it…

…and plunged head-first into the darkness.

The next thing Link knew, he found himself gurgling in six-inch deep water, his frontal side was newly drenched, while his other half he found much more cold than the water. Startled, he threw himself off the ground and stood upright. Soon, he found himself holding his arms in an attempt to get warm. It was like he was back in the Ice Caverns, but he wasn't so sure even that could compare with the bitter temperature in this room. It had to be ten degrees maximum.

But freezing to death would not be his biggest concern – it would be finding a way out. Everywhere he looked: dark, dark, dark. It was a place nothing like the rest of the Water Temple he had seen. He even briefly considered to himself that he might not be in the same _dimension_ as he was a moment ago.

'_What illusion is this? I can't see an inch in front of me, and…'_ He turned his head frantically, attempting to find Navi, which he did. He winced in suspicion when he saw that her usually radial light did nothing to bend the darkness all around. Her wings usually responded clearly with her light to grant them their luminous appearance, but the darkness took that away, too. She was simply a small light blue dot in the middle of bleak nothingness. _'Even Navi's light is ineffective; it looks like I don't have a source to read this place with. I don't like this darkness, it looks so unnaturally…'_ He waited for his thoughts to give him an answer as he looked at the texture of the void around him.

Finally, he found the word that seems only right for it. _'…sleek.'_

Yes, sleek seemed to be the correct word for it, for the whole distance shone like the air had a black obsidian texture to it. Not only that, the dark luster appeared to _pulsate_, one line of sheen treaded and traced over the others like blood making its way through a vein. But the darkness also looked…pure.

All of Link's thoughts tore away from his mind as an ominous echo swept the void, sweeping in and out with wind flying in from random directions, like a poltergeist. He looked back to see Navi's dotted form trembling amidst the space around, like she could shatter if the tiniest flake touched her. He had known some times where it were fearful for her, but this has got to be the first time he had seen her so _vulnerable._

He looked over his shoulder to see that the door he came from was no longer there. Whether the darkness was responsible or not, going back was out of the question.

He turned to rely on his other senses. Turning up his face, he briefly sniffed the air, and bringing the scent in almost froze his nose. It had the scent of winter. He knew it well from back in Kokiri forest, where it snowed even there when the season was right.

He took a step forward, listening carefully to the sound the ground made when he did. It always told whether it was slippery like ice if it made the chisel-chipping sound. Otherwise, he could be given other ideas to himself of what kind of place he is in depending on the texture of the floor. Lord Jabu-Jabu's Belly was another interesting example.

The echo soon passed him again, much closer than before. Waves of nausea passed over Link as it rippled through the air in an almost substantial form when it brushed against the side of his face, slinking through one pointed ear and out the other.

This time, he could just barely listen in on a scratchy harsh voice that too carried in and outwards, so he could only hear parts of what it whispered with winter.

"_**Someone………here…"**_

Link's eyes narrowed with eager anticipation. It was a voice unlike any other that he had heard in his life, and yet he recognized it. _Should_ he recognize it?

"…_**here…?"**_ The ghost repeated through shreds of spaces in a tone and manner of polite curiosity.

Link barely understood the weak, quiet, ominous voice that called to him. His head shot up to witness the whole dimension lighting up and reforming as ripples traced everywhere in a fanatical fashion. A twisted laugh echoed again through the place now shifting between a white-lit colour to a horrendous, bleeding red, to a dusky golden twilight, to pitch-black, back to white again; all shifting in such motion that Link rushed down on his knees to keep his guts from falling out. What could be considered magnificent, intoxicating colors separate and by themselves were terrible to take in constantly and all at the same time. It was a horrific artisan's portrait, constantly being repainted with new layers over, and over, and over.

Very soon after, Link couldn't stomach the troubles of the horridly changing landscape and background any longer. He screamed out, his shout echoing through the still chaotic nightmare, and his face plummeted downwards.

A splash, and everything went dark again.

* * *

His vision was dark and blurred when he came to. He wearily shifted his motion when he realized that his head was completely submerged. His eyes shot to life at a huge, gaping pressure that seemed to rapidly suck his head even further down. White waves swirled all around underneath.

Using all remaining strength that a person could after just regaining consciousness, Link struggled using his arms and spine to pull himself out of the strange water. He was at his last breath, and with one, final force, he shifted his entire body and pulled his face up and out.

He didn't waste another moment bending back down and gasping for breath. Water droplets trickled down his face and their taps echoed when they made contact on the water surface below. His golden hair now darker with moisture caught in his locks, draped down his face with lost poise.

Link struggled to process his mind to work faster at his current predicament. How long _was_ it that he had been unconscious, before he woke to see that his upper half was underwater? He was lucky to be alive.

He struggled to his feet. Finally his constant struggle for breath was becoming easier to manage.

'_What was that voice?'_ His eyes scoured the area. He found himself overtaken by a blinding light at first, squinting his eyes to adjust to it. He looked down to find that he was standing right on top of the water that nearly pulled him under on its own, although he had no idea how deep it actually was.

His eyes lifted. What ran very far, yet very near, an old, solitary tree jutted out from the middle of the silverish water.

Link looked around. Navi was not in sight. Could she be cowering under his shield on his back? But then he would have felt the warmth of her aura from underneath.

"Navi?" He squeezed through a whisper.

No reply.

He turned his thoughts back again to the mysterious tree standing upright, a hundred meters forward of himself. Taking a step, water rippled from underneath his boot and fled outward from it, the ripples grew bigger and stronger as they distanced themselves from the Hylian. They slowly stretched themselves across the wet surface, and finally, when the first row hit the gnarled old tree, the same, evil voice spoke, and this time, it was perfectly clear and fluent.

"**Someone is here,"** It told itself.

Link's elven ears perked up. The voice, to him, sounded cruel, jeering, taunting. It made itself known with a wicked sense of ecstasy. A wind in the back of the voice buzzed when it spoke, giving it the imposition that even the voice itself was blanketed by enchantment of its own. An evil kind.

"**Yes, **_**Someone**_** that I have been waiting on for…a long time."**

Link clenched his teeth together. He didn't like what he was hearing. It sounded too…_familiar._

"Who is there? Who are you? One of Ganondorf's followers?!" Link shouted loud enough so that his voice could carry down to the tree, where he was sure the voice crept up to him from.

There was silence in the room for another minute. Link broke the silence again.

"Answer me!" He shouted into the empty room, his voice teeming with impatience.

"'_**Answer me!'"**_ An echo jeered in a half-hearted shout from across the other side of the large room, but Link was wise enough not to call it his own. It was followed by menacing laughter, echoing a far-off distance prior to the mocking tone of the one he had just heard.

A ripple began to swell from underwater directly in front of the tree. That ripple eventually grew to a whirlpool, brewing around in a large circle, probably the width of the well in Kakariko Village. Gurgling loudly, air bubbles broke the surface of the strange pool as it twisted and contorted like a colorless kaleidoscope. Then, a gigantic silverish pillar of water shot up from the center of the great pool and consumed the entire tree perched on the island right behind it.

Link watched in utter amazement as the pillar subsequently froze itself in place, high in the air and over the tree, preserving it and the land underneath it perfectly. An extremely tall glacier now stood jutting out in the center of the limitless room with no ceiling or walls. It glowed from the inside with a light like none the which he had ever seen before.

Parts of the slither of land broke off from under the tree and the iceberg and tore different directions, carrying out afloat the crystalline sea.

Link focused more on the continuous draw of laughter echoing from all over the room now.

His eyesight scanned the room in criss-cross pattern searching for a lead, and his eyes came to an abrupt stop as he eventually found one. A very _strange_ one.

A man completely drenched in faded black leaned outward from the near-back of the pillar of ice, his arms folded across his chest, his back against the great, now tangible object, one leg pushed against it as a support. He came somewhere from directly behind it? Or out of nowhere?

The first other thing that grabbed Link's full attention of the dark thing was when its head turned to face him; its _eyes_. Two tiny red orbs in place of black eye sockets gazing right back over at him; a feeling that made Link's entire body shudder. No Poe's ghost that he had ever encountered bore such raw malice in the eyes.

Somehow, Link managed to avert his own eyes from their sadistic counterparts, and he gave a brief synopsis of the stranger's entire frame.

'_It's…me? That's not possible!'_ Link's sky blue eyes shivered back at the doppelganger that was he. _'_I_ am me!'_

A wide grin, disturbing by all ways, crept from ear to ear on the shadow's face. It knew that he realized.

Sure enough, a long hat the same shape, but blended with the figure's own black, hung down from the top to the back of its head. The shape of the tunic was recognizable through the trims of cloth hanging, and barely noticeable darker lines overlapping its torso area. The Kokiri gloves and boots lay at their right places upon its body, which Link was still trying to decide was tangible or not.

The spitting image of Link himself, only dark. And _sleek_.

Without moving from its relaxed position, the copy said, **"Let's everyone welcome the Hero of Time…I applaud you for coming this far."** To further exaggerate its comment, it uncrossed its arms and slowly drew five, meager claps, each one eerily echoed across. When it finished, its snake-like grin slowly disappeared. **"Why, Hero,"** he continued, **"You look befuddled."**

Link's face bore shock even as he spoke. "Who are you…?" He asked, his voice softer than before.

His copy smirked again.

"_**Me?**_** I'm **_**you.**_**"** It responded, pointing at himself for the first emphasized word, and then at its rival with the second.

Link glared at it for a time, and then unsheathed his holy blade from his back, along with his shield.

The anonymous duplicate saw his intention and frowned.

"**Ah. You want to fight. Well, that **_**is**_** the only plausible solution, as I have come to kill you as well."**

Link's eyes narrowed. "You're in league with the Evil King."

The figure instantly threw its head back and chuckled. **"Aheheheheh… The **_**Evil King??**_**"**

Link's glare softened. _Wasn't_ he? He certainly didn't bear the ceremonious traits of a hero of Light. That _had_ to be it.

His brief thoughts snapped away as he crouched into a defensive position, watching the doppelganger throw his arm straight out to the side. Black and dark violet energy swirled around his right hand, as Link could swear he saw a blood-red version of the holy trinity, the Triforce, glowing angrily on the back of it. The energy that it harnessed expanded to a long, slender form.

Somehow, Link already knew what was coming. A _sword._

His opponent took grip in hand and raised the long blade towards him. The edges rippled with gravitational energy for a brief moment before dissipating along the side. Taking a swing with the sword back to his side, holding it facing outward, the anti-Link bent his other arm out in front of him and closed the other hand into a fist. The same energy emanated around his forearm, and a large mass, barely visible at first, formed over it.

Its form now lay clear: a _shield._

Prior to Link's own shield, the shield that his darker half held had no crest of the Royal Family etched on its face. It was blank, however shined once in a while with the metallic sleekness that the rest of the body shows in certain spots at certain times. It moved constantly along in flow pattern, identifying itself as _part of the body._

The darkling was prepared.

"**Ready when you are…Link of the Triforce."**

Link brought his guard up on hearing this, readying the Master Sword at the other hand.

"**Come…"** His dark figure blurred into a double-team as he progressed forward. His right eye flashed in a brilliant red star. **"Prepare to be beaten by yourself!!"** He ecstatically shouted through a wide, fanatical smile.

Instantly, he disappeared in another blur, and reappeared directly above Link, bringing down the full weight of his sword with him. Link, who barely saw this coming, somersaulted back, and landing right on his feet, shot forward and delivered a counter attack to his opponent's side.

The dark one caught it with his shield and effortlessly parried it off, shoving Link backwards, and thus, causing him to lose ground.

Sinking under the water in a transparent pattern of ripples, the dark opponent dug deep to the ground and appeared directly in front of Link's standing position as he caught himself. He then suddenly shot up out of the water with the speed and ferociousness to match the other, swinging his sword in a rising vertical fashion. Link tried to jump back to even himself with the swift movement, just narrowly deflecting it with the edge of own sword. Sparks flew.

The shadow, now up top, tried another airborne attack on the way down. Using the force he created to shoot up, he spun a horizontal swing with his dark sword and successfully carved a shallow cut into his opponent's cheek.

Link grunted in pain and flipped back again, this time, landing on a knee. _'This is insane! His movements are so difficult to read…'_

"**That's one for me, little hero. You aren't making this much of a challenge…"**

His shadow seemed to pout at him about his failings to keep to the game.

Link wiped the blood moving down from the side of his cheek with the back of his fingerless glove. Turning up to him, he responded, "Don't act so highly of yourself…" He got to his feet again. "…You lifeless husk."

The clone gritted his teeth in anger, which were really more like sharp fangs. **"I have life enough TO FINISH YOU!!"**

He made a mad dash at Link again, who held his ground and waited for an opening. Lowering his body at just the right height, he pulled his sword out from under and delivered a fierce uppercut to the copy. His other half caught the force again with his shield, but was knocked back aways, this time.

Thrown for a brief distance over the air, the black knight caught the ground and dragged back, tracing waves. He then leapt forward and performed a quick series of jabs with his blade at the hero. Link made a point in blocking each with his shield, occasionally following up with a quick counterattack with his own blade.

The fight was two-sided; since Link wielded his sword with his left hand, his foe with his right, the most that they could get out of the other was attacking the shield right in front of the other's attack.

Then, the dark figure darted up and away, and without taking any steps as he moved, he skied with his whole body leaned forward across the watery surface as he made way towards the great pillar of ice gaping in the middle of the no-zone.

Link grunted in surprise to his sudden absence, and sped after him with sword and shield at hands.

From the distance he saw a long, stained jet of black slithered up and around the top of the pillar at incredible, inhuman speed.

Getting out his Hookshot, Link readied his arm while he dashed towards the tower of ice. Grunting, Link clutched his aching side with his other arm, but kept true to his aim. Freezing water splashed up at him while he ran through an ankle deep lake, but he ignored the chilling feel and continued his advance.

Finally, he saw a tiny red dot reflecting off of the gigantic glowing silver pillar, knowing that his Hookshot was now close enough to shoot for it.

He pulled the latch. A sudden burst, like a gun going off, was carried by a loud echo through the area, and the long, extendable chain of the tool, following a sharp tip shot out and made for its given target.

The head successfully broke through the ice, and Link pulled the latch once more to propel himself through the air to meet up with it. He hit the surface of the side with his feet and held on tight to the handle so he didn't fall off. At forty feet, a landing in three-inch water didn't best suit his appeal.

Standing on the side of ice, he was greeted by a singular stream of black shooting around him – first over him, then under him, apparently trying to scare him off.

Link looked around as quickly as possible to find a way off before the frenzied fiend succeeded. He spotted several rocks, both large and small, suspended high above ground. He didn't have enough time to figure out how they got there – only that they seemed to be comprised of the same soil patch that the gnarled tree was standing on. That was his chance.

Link didn't want to take a chance like this at these conditions, and positioning both feet right, he kicked off the frozen structure and jumped to the nearest stone. The Thing followed.

Looking back in midair to see the black jet chasing him, he quickly readied his Hookshot again, and waited to come into contact with the next largest rock. He could hear the whistle of the creature behind him gaining.

Link came solidly onto one of the larger pieces of sediment and instinctively kicked off. The black, shapeless silhouette did the same. It slammed onto it with such force that it sent the perfectly still, levitating object crashing down in a crumble.

Link looked back at it as he dove towards his next position.

'_I'm cooked if that thing even grazes me. I need to use all of my energy to improvise instead of going on the offensive until I come up with a better strategy.'_ He brainstormed, shooting through the air.

Timing the approach back to the glacier just right, he pulled the latch on the Hookshot once more, and the chain whistled through the air towards the angle of the frigid shaft closest to ground point.

The concentrated darkness was just right behind him, and with Link's hat drifting back against the air current, it was only an inch away and gaining on catching the tip of it.

Making the wisest choice in not looking back, Link let the metallic head of the long chain bore into the surface of the ice, only a few inches higher of where he was hoping it would hit. The sudden pressure of the handle reeling him into it nearly tore off his arm, but he went along and left his nameless assailant behind.

Landing roughly on the surface where the head was, he was (he estimated) about five feet from the floor. He positioned his feet again, and kicking off, did a graceful backflip to strike land(water).

He knew that he was out of luck though in outrunning that swift, dark jet where he could barely out-jump with the Hookshot for extra pull force, so in things considered, Link was weary, and out of ideas.

The jet of black threw itself straight downward and hit the same floor, twenty meters away from Link.

Slowly, the puddle it made and turned into upon contact stuck out upward, a strangely staticy noise, like discharges of electricity crackling, was made audible as the increasingly humanoid shape rippled up. Very soon, two, red beads shot out in a sudden flash out of the head spot and glared horrifically at Link.

The copy was back; he cracked an unfriendly smile and drew his dark version of the Master Sword again. Then he dashed in, and the two skirmished once more.

The sound of clashes and a scene of sparks flying; Link took a step back and made a powerful charged spin attack around the area. The other jumped over it, and attempted to strike him on the way down. He was blocked again by Link, who had somehow managed to gain all of his composition in time.

The darkling grimaced and attacked again. When his sword reached Link this time, the hero was ready, and caught the blade over his shield, pinning it to the ground and locking the entity's arm with it.

Seeing no other option, the dark figure kicked Link away, and taking his sword back at hand, he did a quick three-combo follow-up.

Stumbling aback, two of the attacks Link barely managed to block. The third one, however, broke through his guard and drove a bigger gash into his shoulder.

The counterpart smiled at seeing his pained expression.

Link clenched his teeth together, glaring angrily at him while putting his hand to his shoulder to stop the blood from emerging. The top right part of his blue tunic now became part of his red.

The darkling charged him again, this time with real killing intent to finish the boy, overestimating his own position.

Closing in on his target, the cursed swordsman was immediately cut off when his would-be prey picked up his own sword and passed him with blinding speed. Drawing across, the shadow screamed out in pain.

Link was facing the other direction right behind him, his sword arm held pointing out to the side. Clouds of breath came out of his mouth while he panted against the cold, but smiling nonetheless.

The darkling turned a trembling head to look at his own sword arm. Completely severed from his shoulder. Drops of an inky black gushed to the white water making up the floor, mixing in with it to form a blotch of ugly murk.

His beaded eyes glared on, burning hotter and bloodier than ever, but his face suddenly eased up, and a grin slowly enveloped his face once again.

Shield still at the other hand, his feet splashed the water only slightly while he slowly turned himself around to face his naive other self.

Evilly smiling through blended works in his eyes, his face openly chided Link to attack a second time.

His twisted smile demoralized the Kokirian, but without further off hesitation, Link nevertheless complied with another attack, charging up to the stationary, one-armed menace.

His line of sight rumbled rapidly with his fast movements as he closed in. The shadow warrior still did not move – only kept his sadistic smirk.

Link shot right up to him up front, and took a swing.

-SMACK-

"Guh!" Link shouted in extreme pain, his eyes wide open in surprise. Blood mixed with the saliva in his mouth as he spat red fluid. He looked weakly down at his torso area.

The other Link smiled down at him cruelly. A new arm had shot out in place of where his old one had been rendered. His shield still at his other hand, his right fist glowed blood-red with the evil-looking Triforce insignia while it was pushing and twisting itself deeper into Link's ribs. Link struggled as much as he could to breathe, having had the wind utterly knocked out of him with a devastating punch.

The tall shadow's eyes shone as two red gems up close. He widened his grin, revealing sharp, silver fangs.

"**Oh, my. You really **_**are**_** the **_**weakest Link…**_**"** He let out a barely audible chuckle, and that chuckle quickly turned to wild laughter, his forearm still pressed into the blue fabrics that made up Link's zora tunic.

One eye closed in pain, Link winced while glaring back up at him, blood down the side of his mouth, where two rows of teeth clenched furiously together.

"**Did you think that you could kill your own shadow by simply severing my arm?"**

Link was too worn down to acknowledge the great shield coming his way with the mysterious knight's second arm.

-CLANK-

The dark one bashed him hard across the face with his heavy replica of the Hylian Shield. Link flew backwards at great speed, and smashed into the tall glacier over the strange, wilted tree. Ice shattered as glass under the force, fragments fell from around him and crashed into smaller pieces at the floor.

Link's body fell limp to the floor from a two foot fall, his back slammed hard against the ominous, glowing pillar. Another decent-sized splash came with his painful-looking landing. His hat fell from his head and drifted in the ankle-deep water, revealing a full bed of thick, golden hair.

Link struggled with all of his might and energy in reserve to push himself up onto his knees to keep from drowning again. He hoisted upward, his head hung over and water trickled down from his wet, limp bangs.

Shutting his eyes tight and coughing up an unwelcome mixture of blood and water that had nearly entered his lungs, he could barely say he had the time to draw a second wind before a dark hand reached over him, and dragged him off of his arms and upright onto his knees by his own hair.

A dark red color swirled around in a blotch underneath the two, where Link had lost a few pints of his own fluids from the devastating collision, head against dark steel.

His vision was blurry and undefined and his ears rang loudly, although he could still hear the sound of familiar laughter escaping the doppelganger behind him.

"**Heh, heh, it's little wonder why the people of Hyrule would call you 'hero'. You have a strong spirit, and a strong **_**stomach**_** for that matter."** His voice filled in and out from fluent, to a buzzing and echoing noise. **"But even the strongest of adventurers needs to know when to stop trying. …Look at yourself. You're better off just keeling over and dying right now."**

Over hyperventilating uncontrollably, Link had found the hidden strength to speak out against his duel body's words, resisting the urge to faint again.

"Heh…I can't stop trying…" Even though the back of his head was still detained in a cold grip by the locks, he still made a point to turn it slightly and leer at his foe from the corner of his eye. "…If Zelda…no…_Princess_ Zelda stopped trying to protect her good kingdom and country from evil like you…there wouldn't be a land for people like me to help save. You've chosen the wrong side."

Instantly, he found his head being forcefully dunked under the water for a second before being yanked out again.

"**Princess Zelda? Now what good has **_**she**_** done for you?"** The voice asked harshly.

Link continued hectically gasping.

His memory flashed back to all of the people he met on his adventure. An adventure that changed his life forever.

* * *

_Flashback-_

* * *

"_Young one…"_ _The Great Deku Tree beckoned him, his voice once strong and loud, and now barely had the effect of a child's whisper._

_Link took a step closer. Seven years back then, he was only a small kid. Since he had been raised in a forest whose inhabitants never grew old, or never grew ill, he had never once felt what it was like to watch something die. And this time…for his first time, it was the person that he looked up to in the same way a child looks up to his father._

"_Y-yes, Great Deku Tree…I'm here." He spoke, fighting the urge to cry in front of him._

"_I believe in you…you…will set everything the way it is supposed to be." A leaf broke away from the enormous bed that he held up high and proud in his branches. "Time isn't set in stone, like anyone might have once told you it was, so…we all need someone as good-spirited and kind-hearted as you to hold up the last flicker of light in the darkness that may bring…"_

_Link closed his eyes tight, tears slipped out and streamed down the sides of his cheeks._

_Opening them again, he shouted desperately to his old care-giver. "Great Deku Tree, don't you understand?! Look at me! I'm only a kid! I grew up not knowing how to fight! How can I do anything that anyone else couldn't?"_

_The gigantic tree cracked a weak smile; the sound of wood creaking was heard as he did so._

"_You forget, young Link, that it was _you_ who saved me. If you can save the Guardian of the Kokiri from evil at an age as fragile as ten, I have faith…that you will be able to do so much more… Have faith…"_

_The child hung his head down, closing his eyes in mournful silence, sobbing occasionally._

"_Great Deku Tree…" Navi's voice cracked._

_The tree paused briefly before speaking again; the shuddering sound of branches slowly breaking could be heard as his breath faded._

"_Farewell, Link…and…thou…Na……vi……"_

_--_

"_You're leaving the forest…aren't you?"_

_Link recognized the girl's voice. Without turning around, he did his best to wipe the tears from his eyes, but he knew that he wasn't fooling her._

"_Saria, I…I have to go…"_

_He heard the soft sound of her light footsteps make their way across the bridge to where he was standing, quivering uncontrollably._

_He felt her put a hand on his trembling shoulder._

"_I always felt…there was something about you that made you different from the rest of us. And I always knew that you would end up leaving this forest one day."_

_Her soft voice stifled to a halt. She wiped the emerging tears off her face with her green sleeve._

"…_Just come back safely, okay…?" She struggled to keep her voice from cracking._

_Link turned around and smiled._

"…_Okay." He rushed in, and the two embraced in a hug._

_Saria looked at the object she held in her hand from behind Link's back, and when the two finally broke their hug, she held it out to him._

"_Please take this ocarina…and think of me every time you play it."_

_He looked at the peach-colored instrument that she had laid in his hand. It sparkled in the light._

_He smiled again. "Thank you…Saria."_

_She returned his smile with one of her own._

_--_

"_Hey, everyone!" The gigantic goron patriarch, Darunia shouted in a loud, hearty voice. "Let's all give our new Brother a big goron hug!"_

_As wide, muscular arms reached for Link, he did the only thing his goddess-given natural instincts told him: he fled._

_--_

"_I'm giving this to you – my most precious possession, to the one that I would call my husband." Ruto, the princess of the zoras hinted, smiling flirtatiously with much anticipated eagarness._

_As she kicked her legs through the water away, the last thing she said was,_

"…_Don't tell my father."_

_--_

"_I'm sorry I couldn't be there to say good-bye…" Zelda's voice echoed through Link's mind as he stared mournfully down at the beautiful blue ocarina that she had left him._

"_But I know you've been doing your best lately. Since I have failed to fulfill my duties as a princess, I'll entrust to you the Royal Family's sacred treasure, the Ocarina of Time…and this tune."_

_She closed her eyes and held her own ocarina to her lips, preparing to teach him the holy Song of Time._

"…_Everyone is counting on you, Link. And I know you can do it. That is what I believe from the bottom of my heart."_

_

* * *

_

_-End flashback_

_

* * *

_

"**Give up. How can you talk about saving an entire world if you can't even save yourself?"**

Link's gasping didn't quiet down, but with strong will, he still found the strength to respond.

"I will succeed. I _need_ to succeed. The people of Hyrule are counting on me, and I made a promise…"

"**A promise? What kind of promise?"**

"…A promise…to everyone…that I will keep fighting for what I know is right…"

He heard his dark side let out a weary groan.

Link gradually spoke louder. "…And don't think…for one minute…" The anti-Link's ember eyes grew wider. "…_that I'm going to abandon that promise now!!"_ He found himself with renewed energy and he spun himself around and punched his aggressor right in the jaw, sending him sprawling backwards into the shallow, limelight water.

Shooting back up, Link grabbed hold of the Master Sword, and its blade brimmed with beautiful light.

He turned with it and watched the dark man slowly rise up from the ground. He pointed the Sword towards the figure scowling back at him.

"…And now…I'm _done_ playing with you."

**A/N: How was it? …A long first chapter, yes?**


	2. Round Two: Get Serious!

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Legend of Zelda**

**Chapter 2: Round Two: Get Serious!**

Blue rain poured all around in a place infinite with nothingness with the exception of a small, blue, flat altar with a gigantic golden resemblance to the Triforce in the middle. Around it, six smaller round platforms drifted in their specified positions, floating amidst their assigned positions to form a strange seal.

The golden seal, a disk drifting alone, suddenly sparkled with light, and with a brilliant flash, a rather tall, rather large man dressed in an orange robe opened his eyes, standing on top of it.

With a wave of one of his overly long sleeves, no hand protruding out of it, a wave of light-blue energy swept overhead to the center over the Triforce symbol in the middle, quickly spreading out, and making the triangles glow gold in the process.

The green disk soon lit up in its given color as well, like glitter raining down from out of that particular seal. Very soon, a small, green-haired girl occupied that position.

While she opened her eyes to adjust to the Sacred Realm, the red platform spewed two spirals of fire around the edges, and out from the center came a gigantic, incredibly muscular goron with a hardy beard, and a face to match. A really, really stern face.

The man in orange, Rauru, spoke up; a deep, yet soft voice left his long, white, ear-to-ear mustache.

"The Hero of Time has reached _him._"

"Huh? Who're you talking about?" Saria inquired, her deep blue eyes glittered with a mixture of curiosity and worry for her childhood friend.

Raura pointed his long-sleeved arm to the center again. The light shot alive with white fire dancing all around. Then it was revealed: the great dimension that the darkling had sent Link into. The two stood inside of the gigantic ball of energy that Rauru had mixed to watch them. Saria and Darunia looked too; their eyes widening at the sight of a second Link propelling himself easily off of the ground and approaching his rival once more.

"R-Rauru! Where did you send my Sworn Brother?" The goron was both stricken with fear and outrage at the exact same time.

"Peace, Darunia. This is a trial that Link simply must overcome."

The gigantic goron's pose eased only slightly, his huge hands still clenched into fists, making long muscles and tendons protrude out from around them.

"But…who is _that?_" Saria asked, pointing to the dark version of her friend.

Rauru narrowed his eyes on the moving portrait of the two fighters before answering her.

"His name is non-existent."

Saria acknowledged him with a half-glare, not entirely out of anger, but more out of concern. She had never really gotten angry to the point of really showing it. The closest she had ever come was when Link was still living with her and the other Kokiri, and Mido was trying to gall him into a fight with some words that she had deemed…unfair. Mido had almost succeeded, but Saria appeared and calmed Link down before things could get out of hand. After Link grudgedly left, she gave Mido a talk that she really didn't expect him ever to forget. But now, she was reliving a small piece of anger. It had been awhile.

"You knew that he would be facing him." Saria pointed out sternly to the tall elder.

Rauru closed his eyes tight, indeed recognizing this fact.

"…I did."

"Then why did you let him go? There would have been another way…you should have found another way!!"

"There was none!"

"And you didn't even tell _me_ about this?? I'm his best friend! _I_ should be there for him! He deserves better than this, Rauru! You know that!"

"And you know very well, Saria, that if a Sage interferes with the other realm before that time comes, then everything would be thrown out of the balance. That is what I told you when you awakened as a Sage, and you accepted it."

The green-haired girl grunted in surprise, and hanging her head slightly, she stepped down. She cared for Link deeply…_very_ deeply…but the old Sage was right. It wasn't worth the risk. Moreover, something horrible could happen if Sages chose to leave the Sacred Realm and act so directly.

…But if anything goes wrong, she _will_ be there for her friend. Consequence or no consequence for her action.

"Over a decade ago, there was a terrible ongoing war upon Hyrule. The men who fought over the kingdom tore the land to get what they were after. Year after year, arrows and spears rained over Hyrule field, and black smoke filled the sky. Many good Hylians lost their lives, whether it was on the battlefield, or innocents running to get away from the warfare. But, in the exact area that Kakariko Village stands now, a young woman was seen running along the scarred soil carrying something very precious to her in a bundle of white cloth. The Hylians watching her were far too distracted with their battles against the raiders of the east, and were forced to ignore her. She ran for miles and miles across the burning land that was Hyrule Field, surprisingly uninjured from the ongoing battle as she came to a gathering of gnarled trees – what you, Saria, would know as the gateway into Kokiri forest."

Saria looked down; her hand lay on her chest.

Rauru looked on, and continued. "She ran through the forest village, passing all of the children in green, and ignoring the confused faces that she got as she neared the Great Deku Tree." He suddenly stopped, and turned to look at the lone girl standing on the Forest Seal, in her corner of the Realm. "…Would you like to finish the rest of the tale?"

Saria snapped her head up in surprise with tears welling in her eyes. She looked at him with a pained expression, but shut her eyes and gently shook her head.

Rauru understood. "I'm sorry." He apologized. "I cannot imagine how painful it must be to remember all of this. I will stop the reminiscence of the more familiar events of the war."

Saria kept her eyes closed and her head turned away, trying to avert the gazes that she had a feeling she was getting from the other two, but still managed a nod, and the definite sound "Mm-hm."

He looked at Darunia, and saw that the goron had his arms crossed, and was nodding his head gently with his eyes closed in contentment. It was a good call. As unhappy as everyone was about some of the history, there were people even more sensitive to hearing about the Hylian War than others. Namely the young ones.

"Just what does _that_ have to do with _this?_" Darunia questioned, glaring menacingly at the black shape through the great orb. Ohh what he'd give to be able to walk straight through that image and help his Brother. He'd smash that flimsy little poser in such a short time that those pretty little red eyes of his wouldn't be intact long enough to watch the rest of his body shatter into billions of pieces. Intangible or not, he would make that possible.

Rauru looked at her in concern one last time, and then got to the point. "Amidst…what was happening, something strange appeared in the sky at dusk, one evening. The Hylians soldiers fighting for their country, and even the raiders who had come to conquer it both stopped the fighting and looked on towards a _black and blue portal_ that clung to the sky."

He stopped and closed his eyes deep in thought. When he re-opened them, he looked up, towards the continuous slender drops coming down.

"Then the Darkness came…"

Through the light that they were viewing Link and his copy from, the shadow twisted himself all the way around, stretching out in a grotesque manner. Link was seen wincing – likely at the sound of bones grinding.

"The twilight in the sky suddenly disappeared. …At first everyone thought it was nothing… Then…everything went black…and everyone went silent. The shouts, the clashes of steel, the catapults, the arrows…nothing more was heard after that. The warriors from both sides could do nothing but stand, frozen in an icy fear, waiting for what would happen next…"

He looked at the other two Sages, they both looked at him with anticipation, although Saria's cheeks still had small traces of dry tears on them.

The old man did his best to fake a smile. "…Well, nobody quite found out what happened next, of course."

Darunia's jaw dropped. "You told us that long and boring story, and you provide us with THAT?!"

Rauru's smile dropped instantly. He absolutely detested people disrupting him while he spoke, especially with an absurd statement like that. There was a reason. There was a reason for everything.

"There _was_ something. Even though it was so dark, and nobody could much tell what was happening, the portal high in the sky still lit in a blue hue, the color of the daytime sky. Soon, and nobody even knows for certain," he looked sternly at his two listeners. "There might have been something that had _left_ that portal. You see a moment later, there was a horrible clash, like the sound of clapping thunder."

Rauru took a moment to massage his temples. He opened his eyes again, a grim complexion on his face.

"…and only a moment after that, sick laughter echoed through the battlefield."

The other two were speechless. Saria cuffed her hand lightly over her mouth, her eyes quivering in terror.

* * *

The shadowy creature got down on all fours and made a lunge for Link with killing intent. Advancing in one burst of speed, it opened its maw into something that no longer looked human. Jagged teeth revealed themselves, and prepared to rip Link's throat out.

He dodged.

'_What's going on here? All this time fighting, and the only strike I seemed to manage off of him was with my fist. How could I even touch him?'_

He glanced down at his hand; he realized that it had been the same hand that he used when he punched the poser. Something caught the corner of his eye.

He realized instantly as they befell upon a golden wonder shining alive on the back of his left hand.

'_The Triforce! Of course! The shadow responds to the Gift of the Goddesses!'_

The shadow twisted his neck all the way around, cracking more profusely. When his face turned to his lighter counterpart completely, two beady red eyes came along with a fanged smile. He had the definite appearance of a vampire, or demon pretending to be a human.

**"****The Goddesses can't help you, hero. Not here."**

Link shot him an uneasy glare even as cackling filled the chamber once more.

'_Did…did he just read my thoughts??'_

**"****Of course I read your thoughts!"** The malevolent voice answered. **"I'm **_**you**_**…remember??"**

Link took a deep breath and eased his stance. Trembling uncontrollably as he was, there's no sense in getting worked up now. It was the Water Temple after all, and he had come too far to fail. Letting up for an instant would mean coming out of this with an arm less…or worse.

**"****You see, while in the same area, particularly near this glorious source of light,"** he turned his head halfway to peer out to the glacier, still emitting beautiful white light. Turning his head back fully, he continued, _**"**_**I can read directly into your thoughts and hear anything I wish to hear. I can hear every strategy, every tactic, every plan whether it favors attack or defense and use that knowledge against you. Die."**

The shadow disappeared from space and reappeared directly in front of the now hatless warrior. Sword at hand, he took a thrust towards him, but Link, despite being exhausted and battered enough to barely move, managed to pull himself somewhat away to keep from getting run through.

His doppelganger snagged the shoulder of the arm clutching at his side, drawing a fair wound.

**"****One!"** The copy declared.

Another swipe, slashing a minor scratch over Link's torso. **"Two!"** The voice was increasing in volume.

Slash after slash repetitively left nonfatal wounds over the unfortunate warrior's body.

**"****There! And there! And there! AHHHHhahahahaaaaa!!"** The sadistic shape playfully repeated the same word with his relentless swings and jabs every time he made a wound on his rival.

Link grunted uncontrollably responding to the pain. Sinking to his knees again, Link clutched both sides to keep the blood from flowing out. Out of thin space, he caught glimpse of two black legs already standing patiently in front of him. He felt deep within his gut that his foe was in the process of raising his sword overhead to deliver the final blow. He shot his head up to stare his poser directly the eyes.

"NO!! I won't allow it to end like this!"

_That_ earned an amused smirk.

**"****Stupid elf. You don't have a choice. It's **_**my**_** territory, **_**my**_** rules."**

Link's attention immediately turned to the gigantic ice mass sitting in the center of the vast lake that they were on top of. Quickly snapping his head back, he regarded the darkling with a devious smile.

Immediately sensing what he was thinking, the other Link gasped out. **"Ohhhhhh no. No, no, no…"**

But reaching out to grab him, the darkling did not expect that Link would retaliate so quickly. Link shot to his feet and ran right out from under him, dashing as fast and as far as his adrenaline would let him get without collapsing first. Dashing towards the glacier, he had one thing on his mind. Destroy the light source.

**"****Get back here! Whatever foolish thought made its way into your head, disregard it now!"** Link heard the enraged voice echo from behind, along with the speedy battering of his boots splashing through the water to near the center of the endless dimension. He didn't bother to turn his head and look at where his nemesis was right now, but a sick feeling in his stomach told him that he wasn't far behind. Gripping his side achingly, he grunted trying to pick up the speed.

The great light source was getting closer and closer. He was almost there. Goal in mind, Link readied the overburdening Megaton Hammer. _This'll_ make things break. Gripping the handle of the tool tightly with both hands, he drew the hammer back to the side as far as he would reach, preparing to make the most of the first impact. Then hoisting all of his upper muscle forward, he timed it just right, and jumping forward for extra momentum, proceeded to strike the glacier that he ran up to.

The gigantic metallic head of the hammer gave a low ring whirling through the air to meet up with its target. It was closing fast. No doubt he should make it.

"Get ready, you poser! It's all coming dow-"

_-CHINK-_

Time had succumbed to a screeching, yet silent halt around Link. Faster than his mind could intake, he found himself facing eye to eye with an identical face, which smirked at his misfortune. There was no need to say anything to him – his face and the current dilemma should say it all.

For a while, Link couldn't break his blue, shocked eyes away from dripping red ones of the most powerful being he had yet come across in his journey to bring peace to Hyrule. He stared at him for the longest time.

Link's head managed to force its way to look downward, shivering the whole time. The first color that he had spotted on his chest was dark red. A black sword, eerily similar to the Master Sword, ran right into it, and due to how little of the blade he saw on his frontal end, no doubt out the other side.

His vision and hearing buzzed. Out of illegible sounds, he barely managed to hear the one distinctive sound of his giant Megaton Hammer drop out of his hand, and smash into the inch-high water next to them.

Barely having enough energy, he shifted his head back up, shivering with the effort once more, to look into face of the malevolent creature, which wears his own face as a mask, seemingly with only the purpose as to mock him.

He looked into his face with horrified expression, an evidently disappointed face looking back.

**"****Don't make a face like that. What – you didn't **_**think**_** that it would end like this? To play to role of 'hero', to go around hacking up the bad guys, repetitively telling yourself that nothing bad would ever happen to you? That in the end everything will turn out okay? That you would never once encounter someone stronger than you? **_**Is that the kind of feed I'm getting from you??"**_

Link suddenly gagged in response, coughing up some blood from his mouth as it began to run down his chin.

**"****You don't disappoint me. ****No. ****You**_** disgust**_** me. ****No."** He corrected himself again.** "Rather…**_**you make me laugh.**_** You think **_**you're**_** the good guy? And what am I? Chopped liver? I could be the good guy if I wanted to…or could I? I don't really remember. But I choose this path because it's so much more fun. Not because I would serve Ganondorf."** The copy put a finger to its chin realizing something.** "…And who ever said that I did in the first place? That was your claim, not mine. Problem is, not everyone likes to be the 'good guy'."**

Link glared up at him, his eyebrow furrowed furiously. Speaking up against him was of course impossible with a large blade stuck through him. He couldn't take anymore. He had lost any will to move that he had ever once had. Giving in to the only thing keeping his body up, an extremely sharp edge going into his chest, he collapsed in a splash next to where the black image was standing.

* * *

"LINK!!" Saria yelled upon watching her friend fall to the ground through the mirror reflection of the alternate dimension that the Darkness had created itself.

Rauru and Darunia were thunderstruck. Standing in silence, they all continued to watch through the triangular mirror in the center of the great Triforce symbol on the floor. This couldn't be happening. Absolutely no way.

Saria didn't bother fighting any tears back. If she did, it would still be far from possible. Link was…dead? That couldn't be true! Even against any odds, he should have found a way out of it, just like any other time!

"I've had enough…" A tiny whisper escaped her lips.

The other two looked at her.

"THIS HAS ALL GONE ON LONG ENOUGH!!" She screamed out.

"There…there must have been some mistake! It was not prophesized to end like this…"

Saria didn't waste another moment before snapping her head in rage to the elder. The look that she gave him broke his heart. Tears went streaming down her face as she gave him the most furious look that she had ever given anyone in her entire life. And that face, even coming from a little girl…even coming from Saria…knowing Saria, Link's apparent death had gotten the better of her. If she was going to make a rash decision, Rauru was almost questionable that Darunia would be enough to stop her from making it.

"Mistake??!! Take a good look through that window!! That's _hardly_ a mistake!! He's killed Link! He's _killed_ the most important person in my life!! I…!!"

She stopped herself. Taking a deep breath for a second, she snapped her head and focused her heated glare at the twisted, vile version of her friend. Her tears never stopped coming, though. Even as hurt, and as heartbroken, and as _furious_ as she was at the assailant…and at Rauru, there was really no use to anyone in admitting her feelings for Link. She didn't want to. She would always be the shy, timid girl, despite the fact that anyone that knew her would say otherwise. She always looked so cheerful to everyone before. She always felt as cheerful as she looked. But today is completely different. As much as it frightened anyone around her that she would express so much anger, a fact remains. It would always frighten herself more than anyone.

Rauru closed his eyes in pity and in shame. What a dark day that sees the Hero of Time end right here. And a dark day to see this normally happy girl's behavior turn almost violent because of it.

"…I…never wanted any of this for him. …Please believe that…" He reached the orange, long sleeve that made up his arm to the despondent girl and proceeded to put it on her shoulder to ease her pain.

"…I'm sorry, Saria."

She instantly broke away, surprisingly strong.

"You're sorry?! You're sorry and you're apologizing to _me??_ If Link could still hear you, don't you think you should apologize to _him_ instead? Isn't he the real victim here?! He's earned that much credit!!"

Rauru closed his eyes again and shook his head. "Don't talk like that."

"Why?! Does it trouble you to think that you could've prevented this from happening?!"

Darunia raised his arms up in a calming gesture. "Now Saria, I really think you should breathe and-"

"This doesn't concern you! As far as I see, you stood around and waited for this to happen just like he did!"

The goron patriarch felt his face change color. No way was this going to be pinned on him. _"Saria!!"_

That tone brought the green-haired girl to her senses. Realizing what she was saying, she turned her head back to glare at the sinister silhouette through the Triforce. Her friend still lay limp.

"…sorry…" She muttered almost illegibly, although the other two had managed to piece together that it was an apology.

* * *

On the other side, the duplicate got down on his knees, bending down to get closer to Link, who lay face-down in the water. Without his hat, his long, golden hair was disorderly and messed up after the beating that his darker half had given him.

Ignoring that, the evil-eyed copy proceeded to grab Link's right arm, and tore away the brown glove. He gave a fanged grin, having exposed the right hand of his opponent.

The humanoid shadow cracked open its mouth, making it spread open at three times the width any normal human's would. Demonic, jagged teeth once again emerged top and bottom and his voice cracked and croaked in the same fashion as the Grudge.

Resting both arms against the floor around them, he leaned in with his horrendous, huge maw, aiming for the spot now made clear from brown Kokiri leather.

The maw made contact with Link's wrist, and the menacing darkling sank his sharp teeth in.

A couple of minutes later, he broke away from it. There was no pulse, he found.

His jaw crackled back, and his mouth relinquished to its normal size. In place of where terrifying, monstrous jaw pieces once held together, a wide, familiar smirk returned. A silverish fang stuck out of one side of the doppelganger's mouth.

**"****You really **_**are**_** dead, aren't you? Maybe there was really no need to bite you, after all…"**

The darkling knelt down to examine the fang marks left by his incredibly wide bite. A perfect, red circle was left up on Link's wrist near his hand. There were thin slits dotting around it to mark the endpoints where the fangs had evidently dug in. As far as bite wounds would go, this one was surprisingly decorated.

The copy picked up the limp arm for a few seconds, then once again let it inevitably drop to the floor again, creating a meager splash.

**"****You broke too easily."** The shadow mentioned disapprovingly. **"Pity."**

Shrugging his shoulders, he got back on his feet again, subsequently sheathed his weapon onto his back. He spared the collapsed Hylian one last silver smile before ambling away.

Link was left behind there, in the water, motionless like he had been. His hair still sprawled out somewhat, heavier because of being wet, covering his face from normal view.

The water around him was a red tint, blood mixing in with the Water Temple's underground lake.

His sword and shield lay at his side, though the Sword gleamed with light on the blade's edge, as if begging for its master to get up again. But there was nothing that it could do to help more than any other sword could.

The anti-Link made no splashes in his wake as he continued his slow descent away from the fallen elf.

Unbeknownst to the darkling, a single, tiny pink light escaped from the would-be corpse lying just a distance away. A moment afterwards, Link's eyes shot open.

The other Link stopped where he was going without turning around. Looking just a little bit over his shoulder, he mumbled something to himself.

**"****Hm?"**

_-SHIIINK-_

The echoing sound of a blade made contact with the shadow copy's head in a split second. He could only pick up the brief image of a figure in blue.

But that was all, for afterwards, he was sent sprawling head-first back into the water, making a relatively huge splash. He lay in the shallow pool, wincing in pain and surprise as he held a hand up to his face, doing his best to cover up where his right eye once was. As a replacement, black, inky fluids rushed outward through his fingers where he held his hand to it, and the strains on his body just became harder to bear.

The dark figure gritted his fangs together. **"Ugh…you ungrateful lout…**_**why are you still alive??"**_

Holding his familiar sword which was now bathed in more of the black ink from the mysterious copy's body, Link smiled from a distance away.

* * *

"Could it be…?"

All of the Sages looked in through the frame in the center of the realm.

Then, their expressions all jumped to life with delight. Link was alive.

"Yeeeaah! YAHOOOOOO!!" Darunia shouted, throwing his massive fist high up into the air. "I knew he couldn't stay out of the fight!"

Rauru felt a small smile spread across his face. "Hm. Link...full of surprises as always."

Saria's eyes were shot full of amazement. It took her a little while, even after they had seen him get back up, to finally download it into her mind.

She smiled weakly with tears trickling down her cheeks.

'_Thank goodness…'_ She thought, closing her eyes in pure relief. _'Thank goodness…'_

* * *

**"**_**Why are you still alive??"**_

Link held his smile.

"If you had been careful enough to turn around to make sure that you had done the job right, you would have noticed the pink aura of a Recovery Fairy escape my body."

**"****Why you cheeky…"** The disgruntled demon paused for a moment and looked up at the still escaping fairy; sure enough, a pink glow carried on a set of insect wings.

**"****Fairies…"** He told himself. **"…meddling again."**

The doppelganger was instantly swept off the ground from where he lay faster than he could see with his one usable eye. He found himself flying through midair and realized that Link had grabbed a hold of the back of his tunic, forcing him through the air with him.

Before he could react, he was forcefully thrown back to the ground, making a much louder splash than before. He once again lay there, his body all twisted and disorganized, but he still managed a heated glare as he lay there twitching uncontrollably.

He found that Link was right up in front of him, smiling down at his disheveled state. As the anti-Link saw, there were no longer any traces of blood on him or his clothing. There was, of course, a lengthy tear on the front of his blue tunic where he had stabbed him, but from inside, no gaping hole. It was perfectly clean flesh.

The blue hat that matched his particular tunic drifted in next to his foot. Still smiling, Link gently closed his eyes, and bent over to pick it up.

His rival glared despondently up at him through a single, weary, red eye. With his hand no longer covering his face, the socket where his other eye had once been remained clear, still drooping heavily, and strange black ink still running down.

Link calmly twisted his hat, squeezing all of the water out of it, and then, as soon as he had slightly fixed up his golden hair, placed the hat back onto its rightful place.

"If you had thought more for our friends, you would have remembered about the fairy."

The darkling watched as Link reached back down to drag up the long tool that he had gotten from the Fire Temple.

"…or the _Megaton Hammer!"_ He added on, lunging at the dark, crippled body in front of him, gripping his tool with both hands.

"THAT'S the way!!" Darunia shouted, cheering on his 'little' Brother.

Thinking quickly, the copy rolled swiftly out of the merciless head of the great hammer, and instantly cracked himself back into normal shape. Spinning swiftly back around Link, he grabbed his own sword and prepared to stab him again.

Not even bothering to look behind himself, Link spun the whole hammer around in a full radius, smashing the big metal head into his opponent's ribs, and distinctively hearing six gruesome cracks when it impacted.

The poser was knocked several meters back, and smashed into the very glacier he was trying to protect.

He tore himself away from the big imprint he left in the ice, slumping down slightly at having half of his ribcage broken. He clutched his side, and made his way towards a hammer-wielding Link.

**"****That's quite enough of that, methinks…"**

"Or _Din's Fire!"_ Link cut his evil twin off.

Using the stance that the Great Fairy had taught him in front of Hyrule Castle as a child, Link swung his arm around, and then threw it into the water in the form of a fist. A gigantic flame wave swept out from him, and expanded towards everything else, whistling furiously with power. It hit the other Link at nearly pointblank, and the bright colors of Din's Fire turned black against his own bleak form.

**"****Gwaaaahhh!!"** He exclaimed, once again flying back against the light source, clutching his badly burnt face, engulfed in black flames.

Upon impact, his own body, as well as some of the fire released from the Power Goddess's incredible spell, melted through a great deal of the ice mass that he was once so proud of.

Link stepped up to him, and held his tunic in an iron grip.

"Well?" He asked, curious to how the copy would react to utter defeat.

**"****Hyuh, hyuh…you destroyed my twilit crystal."** His laugh was blatantly exhausted and unhealthy prior to the sadistic laughs from before. Link could hear him hyperventilate. Whether it was getting his organs smashed from the incredibly large hammer, getting half incinerated, or both was unknown.

As the copy revealed his face to Link, he could see the smoldering ruin that made up the right half to go with the eye that he was missing. Various parts of his left were scorched too. He had messed him up pretty good.

**"****How…could you be…stronger…than I?"** He gasped out weakly.

"I think I have a satisfying answer for that." Link said, pulling him up by his tunic against the tree that a gigantic glacier used to preserve.

All around them, the area bended into different colors, going in reverse pattern from how the strange place came. Eventually they found themselves back in the darker room that just looked like part of the Water Temple. The lake was gone, and only the tree was left standing in the center of the blue tile floor with ankle-deep water.

"A man's shadow will only be as strong as the man. In the very beginning, you were prepared for me, weren't you? You mirrored all my movements, and you dealt with me easy the first time, didn't you?"

**"****Hyuh…easily."** The now faded shape answered, still hyperventilating for air. Link could barely see him, now he was almost completely blended in with the tree he was against thanks to the dark room and the loss of light.

"…But there's more to it than just that."

**"****Oh?"**

"As I said before, the shadow must only be as strong as the man who bears it, so… When I stepped into this room, I wasn't feeling a hundred percent healthy since I had to fight another monster to get in. So when I confronted you, you had the exact wounds yourself, and were only feeling as healthy as I was."

**"****So what?"**

"_So_…when you incapacitated me the first time, that fairy was released. When the fairy was released, I felt as healthy as I ever had before. However, _you_ on the other hand, received no fairy, so therefore, you received no healing. You simply had all of the wounds from before the fight started. …And that punch that I gave you probably didn't help so much, either." He added, sportingly. The disheveled creature gritted his sharp fangs at him. "Since I was naturally healthier than you after that happened, my performance was simply better, and I bested you."

The copy's clenched teeth eased back in, returning his mouth to a silent scowl. **"****Humph. …I see."**

"_That_ was the explanation that _you _wanted to hear."

The faded warrior grunted in surprise. His whole body scratched like static, like getting a bad signal.

"The other explanation was that you chose the wrong side, as I told you before. Since I still have friends to look out for me and you have nothing, you simply lose. It's not about caring for only yourself and your own needs. People like you would never understand. And honestly, it saddens me...to think that you never, ever will. But people like you are the reason that the world needs champions to fight for the cause of peace. People like me...they are the ones that will make the final difference." Link used his free hand to lift the Master Sword up by its blade and show the emblem engraved on it to him. "They are the winning side. My resolution has been stronger than yours the whole time, you see. For this reason...you lose."

**"****Thanks. **_**I'll remember that next time."**_

"Oh, and one more thing, and try not to forget it:" Link pulled the figure in with both hands. "…I _am_ the good guy."

The anti-Link took this for humor, but nevertheless, decided to go along with it.

**"****Hehahah! Good, hero…actually pretty good."** His voice sounded much more healthy and active. **"And since you took my crystal, self-projection is no longer possible in an area like this. Against all odds, you did alright. However…"** An ear to ear grin was barely visible on the pixilated, almost invisible face. **"There's still…something missing."**

Without warning, his mouth cracked open to that ugly, fanged version that he used to bite Link from before. He leapt for Link, his left eye glowing with a vicious fire that seemed as real as ever despite his rather fanatical body conditions. A loud exhale was heard as he lunged.

_-Chink-_

Link smiled at the reverse sight of what had happened earlier. Except this time, through the head. The Master Sword was lodged into the faded figure's forehead. The creature froze for a minute, and with a brilliant flash of light radiating off, a blood-curling scream echoed down the long hall.

The faded figure twitched in a crazed seizure, his lower jaw still unhinged. With no further hesitation, the failing shape crumpled into dust and ruin, and nothing more was left.

Link closed his eyes and rubbed his wrist against his forehead wearily. "Phew! You. Were. A. Pain." He sheathed the Master Sword back into place.

"Hey! Link? LIIIIINK!" He recognized the tiny voice. Before anything else happened, he was blinded by a blue light right in front of his eyes.

"AAAhhhhh, Navi!" Link complained, shielding his eyes from her magnificent glow.

"I found you! I found you! Honestly I was beginning to wonder if I'd find you _but I found you!"_

"_Yes_, Navi. You found me."

"Link, what happened? For a while, we were together, but then…"

The Hero of Time wore an exasperated look.

"I…fought someone."

"Who?"

Link pulled the Master Sword back out. He held it up in front of him and examined it. The black inky substance (blood) that was splattered onto it was no longer there. Had he imagined the whole thing? No… That couldn't be… But then what other explanation was there? But the way that he said 'I'll remember that next time' – that's unsettling. Would it actually be possible if they met again? He certainly hoped not.

"Hey Link! What's up with your right hand?"

Link's eyes popped open. "Huh?!" He instantly turned to his right hand and looked at his palm. Nothing there, but something just below it caught his eye. There was a circular, black marking, almost like a…strange bite mark on his wrist. He took a few seconds to examine it. When he was finished, another surprise awaited when he turned it over. There, on the back of his right hand, was a black Triforce emblem. It resembled the one already on his left, but with more depth in color.

"Another Triforce symbol? How could that be possible? So odd…" He looked up at the fairy and saw that her wings were fluttered with that nervous feel that Link had learned to recognize. He rubbed the back of his head and put on a silly grin.

"Heh, heh! Don't worry Navi. Let's finish whatever caused this 'lake curse' and then I'll ask the Sages about it later."

But then, when he listened for a response from his companion, he heard nothing. That was _extremely_ odd. In fact, he found that whenever he moved around in the water, he couldn't hear that either. Soon, a grim buzzing sound came into his hearing. He saw that Navi was probably talking to him, but no words were coming out. The ghostly buzz was becoming louder. Not like a buzz, as in a bee, or electricity, but just…haunting.

Then, and even then Link couldn't tell for sure, he heard the ever so familiar laugh of an ever so familiar voice echo out through the haunting noise. And out of the very back of Link's mind, that voice just happened to say…

**'**_**We'll meet again soon…Link.'**_


	3. Morpha

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Legend of Zelda**

**Chapter 3: Morpha**

Door into room through room into next door, there was no end to the labyrinth of damp foundations of mechanisms and circuitry that coursed along the stony walls and ceilings of the Water Temple. If Link had known that it would have been this ridiculously complex finding his way around, even with the use of a map, he would have just followed wherever Ruto, the Princess of the Zoras went and used her as a personal guide. It's not like she'd be less than eccentric about it – she had let it become known well enough to everyone around her about her feelings for Link. He was sure that there was not a thing that the infatuated girl would not do for him.

Brushing that uncomforting thought to the back of his head, Link continued following the light blue lights that illuminated the pass of the corridor he walked, as well as most of all the others. Though gears of machinery rotated all around him, he heard nothing much more than the rush of water and hiss of steam every now and then. The Zoras were master craftsmen and fine engineers when it came to the overlooking of their sacred place, he supposed. To have so much detail, pipes to gears, bronze to stainless steel, to make so little noise while they were clearly active was unheard of. Then again, Link had spent no time around such vast networks of technology from the inside of his somewhat primitive home deep in the forest.

His fine leather boots clicked softly across the blue tiled floor. Deeper and deeper he moved, his heart becoming more assured with each step that he would find a way through this maze and into the center of the tower. That, as well as anything, would be where the source of the curse should like to be to inflict the most damage. The cowardice strategy made Link's teeth grit with frustration. He was always the one who would actually have to go looking for whatever he had come to deal with; it was never the other way around for once. Apparently it was too much 'trouble' for them. Well they haven't _seen_ trouble. Not yet.

"Link." The tiny light that was Navi spoke with a soft voice to get his attention.

"Yeah?"

"I know there's something you're not telling me. I can read it in your eyes. You know you can tell me anything. …I'm just here to help."

The young man shrugged his shoulders. "You want to know about the thing I fought."

"I do." The voice that she used pleaded softly to him. She kind of reminded him of Saria, the way her voice begged him to tell her what the Great Deku tree had told him that day he left the forest to the outside world. That was seven years ago.

His arms were crossed while he made his complete stop. The whole facility around them went quiet accept for the continuous water flow. He smirked to the side, his sky blue eyes hidden from sight under his golden bangs. "Well to make a long story short," he tilted his head up to her, revealing them, "it was me."

The fairy's flight pattern alone showed him that she was just baffled with questions about his vague summary.

"I'm _sorry?_" She responded somewhat harshly to the absurd statement. "You fought _yourself?_"

He slightly puckered his lower lip up in a manner of thought to how he could explain something so bizarre, staring at the ceiling with rolled eyes. "It wasn't _myself_ myself, but it was this sort of black…shady…_thing._ Like…hoh, Goddesses how do I go about explaining this…" He took a moment to massage his temples, his eyes closed wearily for a time. "Imagine me, but all drenched in ugly sinister black, red-eyed, and overall more sadistic in character. That kind of thing."

"Link, you're being too cryptic."

"Well I really don't know how else to break it to you. Sorry. But between the two of us, I and he, there just didn't…really seem to be a whole lot of a difference. …I'll tell you this; he was the strongest thing that I've come across since I challenged Ganondorf as a child seven years ago."

In saying those precise words, in sparks of images, there was a brief flashback about his very sudden confrontation with the 'soon to be' Evil King, who had intervened when Link was intent to bring the last Spiritual Stone back to Princess Zelda.

His pointed ears lowered in a sort of depression thinking back to how she had to flee because of him. _'I was hoping that…we would open the Gate together. The Door of Time.'_ He thought with melancholy. _'I know.'_ He found himself using his thoughts to hear her soft, graceful voice answer his own. Although seven years had indeed passed and she would not carry the same young girl's voice, it was the only one that he could imagine – the only one that he could define her with. But even through nearly a decade, while he was now bordering maturity, it was well enough to satisfy him. He did his best to imagine the look on her face – the happiness which he would bring to her when he presented that last Spiritual Stone, that last relic that brought him to this powerful Sword that he now wields with the courage to use it. Hyrule's final hope. He did his best to imagine the sparkle in her beautiful blue eyes – the two keys, he realized, to stopping a hero's heart.

His eyes became void and empty, drenched in darkness and depression that he could not imagine any smile, any happiness on the princess's face, but only the fear that he had only briefly witnessed through it, rapidly becoming more distant as she rode away on horseback from the man intent on capturing and using her for his own selfish pursuit of power.

It was only thinking about this that Link had realized how much he really missed her. He wondered what she would now look like.

"Anyways…" Link mentally punched himself in the face to snap back to the current. "He was nothing too important. More of Ganondorf's trickery, I would bet. He had already created an image of himself, and look at what he did to that."

This particular reminder circled as an unpleasant reminiscence around the encounter with the Evil Spirit from Beyond, _Phantom Ganon_, in the very heart of the Forest Temple. He wasn't an easy foe to face, so if he never had Saria's respect as a friend before, he certainly had it as at _least_ a Sage, now.

"I beg to differ with you Link," Navi told him chidingly. "I believe that with every enemy there is to fight, there is something about the enemy worth learning. Remember your battles. Remember the strengths and weaknesses that you learn about every one enemy you challenge. No doubt in my mind, you should almost grasp as much knowledge of fighting now as the Hylian Knights."

"Don't stride too far." Link warned her. He was hardly one to involve comparing himself to Princess Zelda's most accomplished men-at-arms. "At any rate, that thing that I was fighting – yeeeeaaaah…it's dead now. …As a doornail."

"What makes you so certain-?"

"He's DEAD I tells ya!" He comically emphasized with extremity, finding himself increasingly frustrated with his fairy friend for her lack of faith in his ability to finish a job. She spiraled off course in surprise. "I watched mine own Holy Blade go through his cranium and through again. Unlike you, I was there." He paused for a moment, blinked, and then gruffly faced forward. "Now let's go free a lake."

Navi's wings fluttered unbalanced for only a moment, and then she gained her composure again. It didn't take a Gossip Stone to tell her that there was something getting to him. Could he really have been given that much trouble handling whatever it was he was handling? She wished now more than anything that she had been there to see for herself. The very few times that something manages to separate them, how could she fully grasp what would happen to him during those few times? She needed to be more careful.

"Things appear to be looking up already," Link mentioned, attempting to change the subject for her good and his own. Preparing to make another step down the colossal corridor, he added, "I don't hear anymore machinery, so that could very well mean the Creature's power is faltering."

"It could also mean that all the power in the entire _structure_ is faltering."

Link snapped his head to her. "Wha-?"

Before he could even finish the word, let alone fully realize what she was getting at, all of the bright neon lights guiding their path overhead went out following a loud couple of clicks, leaving the two in utter, pitch darkness.

While grinding gears and sprockets came to prolonged ceases all around them, and the whole of the alien technology gave way to one last great heave of life, sparks hissed off of the failed mechanisms along the wall in the background, both far and near.

Link lowered his head. "Damn it all."

"Hey, no prob, Link. Remember I'm a fairy. We fairies can create vibrant auras of light for a small radius, and make the cutest little torches you can use!" She giggled playfully following this, whistling up in front of Link to keep him informed of where he was headed.

Link squinted to adjust, and headed for the door. If he had any more Recovery Fairies, he would use them to further illuminate the dungeon. Since this wasn't the case, he made due with what he had.

With all of his anger and frustration seemingly gone and forgotten, the handsome Hylian smiled once again with the purity that he had never made a sin before in his life. A fitting impression for the noble hero of light and single selected person of the Master Sword. "Thanks, Navi. I appreciate it."

Even though he couldn't see it through her blinding aura, he had a feeling that she was smiling back. "Don't mention it, kid. Just here to help." She stated professionally yet with the impression that they had been friends forever. She was glad that she could actually do something for him other than just buzz around in his ear throwing him hints that the Know-It-All Brothers could probably figure out.

The walls lining up with them were in the very least a story high. Navi's light didn't go as far as the top obviously, but the detailed circuitry that they walked by simply had to need enough room to say as much. A cool aqua blue neon pattern was flowing lamely through small, lit-up creases in the machine. What purpose they fulfilled, Link would probably never come to know.

Other than the almost non-existent hissing sound of dying steam emulating weakly from the overly complex room, the only sound coming through the dark, dead room was Link's boots against the fine-tile floor. To think about how big the corridor was becoming, the fact that he was the only one making noise was unsettling indeed. He didn't know what was waiting for him, or how far ahead – hence, it could even be in this very room. But after the Hell that the strange doppelganger had already created for him and dragged him through for its own grim pleasure, bring it on.

He stopped abruptly at the sound of trickling water at his foot. He looked down to see a tiny stream of water flowing the other way from where he was heading. Coming from the Water Temple, this was probably nothing strange, but _this_ water looked a little bit…

Navi suddenly rumbled rapidly, ringing like a bell in full alert. A thing that all fairies did when they sensed grave danger.

"Link! Be careful! That isn't _normal_ water!" She shouted her warning. She barely found herself hanging around him, expecting him to make a run for it.

He didn't. He stood his ground.

Looking up at the long wide gap of dark that never ended in the room, the faint, eerie rush of water, like an approaching tsunami, met his ear. Something was coming.

The water became louder and louder, and judging by how fast it was increasing in volume, it was coming to him at a ridiculous speed. But the darkness was as fog, blocking him from seeing exactly how far.

Then, realizing what was coming, Link's eyes became wide, and he readied himself with a new magic stance. "Keep close to me," he told Navi, drawing a long breath in severe focus. The fairy (very) happily obliged, diving for cover somewhere into his tunic. He took his arms up into a cradling gesture in front of his chest, being sure to give neither not too much nor not too little breathing space. Feeling a powerful energy slowly gather in his center, he threw his arms up into the air, his hands reaching out as if to hold something. A blue light radiated brilliantly over his head, covering his entire upper half in a bright blue light similar. The enchantment was almost upon him.

"_Nayru's Lo-"_

A gigantic wall of water swept out of the dark and smashed against him, sweeping him off his feet and down the long hall. He smashed into wall after wall of metal machinery washing up with the overpowering current, sending chunks of it with him. He ultimately was knocked into a rusted iron gate that he never even knew was there at the end of the bleak, silent hallway, and found himself riding a waterfall down.

He never knew how long he fell.

All he could do was to draw a quick, insignificant breath not for air thanks to the specialized Blue Tunic, but for the sake of bracing himself as he splashed into a large body of water and drifted swiftly through head-first into the sandy bottom. He saw white for a moment, and then made a desperate swim back to the surface.

Somehow he retained consciousness, though he still struggled to keep afloat. He found himself staring up at a moonlit sky. It was nighttime. Some way or another, he had found himself back outside of the temple. Climbing to the nearest spit of land he could find, he was down on his knees, smothered with the feeling of exhaustion. The wondrous part of it all was that while he seemed to be able to move just fine, he felt absolutely no pain from smashing against stone and metal, or in the very least, falling probably twenty meters. His panting halted for a moment, replaced with a small smirk when he recognized a faint blue light engulfing his arms resting on the ground. Shifting his body slightly to gaze back down at his reflection on the shore, he saw that certainly enough, the rest of his body was covered as well. Nayru's Love: huge success. Courtesy of the Great Fairy. He was sure that without it, the impact with the huge wave of water to begin with would have been enough to crush him into tuna.

Praying that his luck would hold up for him a bit longer, he reached behind himself hoping that his shield was still intact after those insane collisions. Well being intact wasn't the issue – more like being completely missing from his backside. But that wasn't the only thing missing.

'_My sword…? The Master Sword??!! Where is it?! Where's it at?? Craaaaap!'_

His head spun with panic at only the mere thought of the devastating losses that would result from the single most important item in his arsenal that would turn out missing at a time like this. Without it, Hyrule is surely, truly lost.

He frantically snapped his head around looking for it and stopped at a certain degree. He breathed a sigh of sheer, honest-to-Goddess relief.

The sword was resting; wedged into the mud a small distance away, yet still managing a luminous shine off of the moonlight. It was wonderfully, magnificently, beautifully…unharmed.

He clutched his chest very tightly to keep from having a stroke from the worry. "You…alright in there Navi…?" He whispered while he continued to kneel and assume the recuperating position. Almost immediately, a small light blue orb came hovering out from behind him, dripping wet and fidgeting uncontrollably.

"That. Was. The _worst._" She stated in a trembling but self-assured voice. "No matter how much I bathe," she continued, "I will never be able scrub off this horrible stain of this memory. Of this personally hated experience…"

Link chuckled weakly. "I know I'll never be able to _drink_ water the same way ever again…"

"Oooohhhh…don't say 'water'…" She pleaded in a moan.

Leaning over to a more comfortable position, he calmly stated the facts. "My shield is gone. Guess we all knew this would happen sometime…" He hung his head, throwing an arm around his bent up knee, the other one resting normally. "I still can't believe my luck. If it's no Shield-eater, it's a natural disaster taking place in the middle of an accursed temple."

"Uh, Link, I don't think this disaster is by any means natural."

"What's that?"

"Look."

He followed the opposite side of her wings to where she was facing a lengthy waterfall spewing down from a sewage pass high in the hills, where Link had just experienced plummeting from. Where natural water was flowing down from it, a murky, almost milky fluid was blending into it following the current to their position.

"Oh good Lords, what _next?_" Link wearily pulled the holy blade out of its sludgy pedestal and turned to face the disturbance. He had no shield like he did before, but with any luck he wouldn't need one.

The strange water finally reached the opening mouth into the tiny puddle that is the remains of Lake Hylia, and proceeded to slid in. It looked thick and ugly, even from where they viewed it, and they watched in awe as the water level of the lake steadily rose. In the near-center of the gaping hole, air bubbles rose up and popped themselves in a nasty, goo-like gurgle.

"Hero…" A calm, soft voice of a young girl called out of nowhere to him, as clear as the water was before it was corrupted. "You have chosen a bad…place to try and be a hero."

His eyes narrowed on a fair-sized lump causing a wake in its movement through the hazy fluid, creating slow but thick ripples. He couldn't completely identify it from the distance and the fact that it was night, but he did recognize a definite round structure now swirling crazily in the now-restored lake.

'_I don't believe it…'_ Navi thought.

"W-who are you? Who's there?" Link replied to the child's voice. "Show yourself."

The child's giggle echoed all over a murky, corrupted Lake Hylia, impossible to see through. The upper half of the head of a young girl poked out from the bubbles emerging in front of him, leering up at him from the safety of the surface with two black, lifeless eyes.

"Hey, mister," she beckoned to him a perfectly flawless voice despite her head's half-way position in the musty water. With no gurgling or coarse or guttural nature, but rather the playful voice of a young girl, it reeked with a sense of false innocence and cruel, jeering intent. "Come in the water and swim with me."

The flirtation instantly triggered an awkward memory of the time he had rescued Princess Ruto from the belly of Lord Jabu-Jabu, the great whale of a fish, and deity of the Zoras. After he had escaped from he prayed he would never find out where, the young girl playfully pushed him into the water and swam towards him with a certain mischief in her eye. She had sort of violated his space in a way, although she did give him the Stone he had come for to begin with.

He pointed his holy blade at where the pale face was protruding from; whose eyes looked the same as a Zora's eyes. He yanked his sword upright slightly, motioning her all the way.

She closed her dim, dead eyes and silently complied.

And then, Link heard the most god-awful sound that water could make. Complete cycles of stirring and swirling spun in and out, in and out, in and out, giving him a lightly sickening feeling of influenza while the pale shape of the rest of the girl slowly rose up from out of the gray muck.

Her figure now refined, she was a beautiful young girl, looking about twelve years of age, with long black raven hair going down over her shoulders and a gown of purest white going down just over the hips of her tiny, rather fragile-looking form. There was not a single stain on it or her. Her all-black eyes had a kind of shine to them – the kind that if you look just right at the moon, you see the reflection of…everything that you know that she sees.

She kept her chilling gaze on him, not breaking away for one minute, and slowly cracked a sadistic smile that no one would imagine that a child so pure in looks could bear.

"Oh dear, mister," she said, reverting back to a flash of innocence that Link almost found himself tipping over several times. She looked like she almost felt a bit sorry for him. "You went and picked yourself a wrong…fight."

"You…you're just…a _child?_"

The young, pure shape frowned. "So were you…once."

He was still soaking in with the disbelief, and somewhat disappointment before remembering that not every friendly face was a trusty one. "Who _are_ you?"

Her face seemed to dim a bit at being pressed for her name, but nevertheless, she rested her hands nonchalantly on her front from pale, flawless arms hanging down, and bowed to let him know that she was fixing to politely give out her name.

"My…identity," her voice was soft and tranquil, "…is _Morpha._ Learn it…well, Hero, lest I elect that your…death be slow, grueling, and without mercy." She threatened him as if she had threatened a hundred heroes before him.

Nayru's Love was gone. The blue light protecting his body was gone also. He took a steady step to the side, his sky-blue eyes never once leaving her black doll's eyes. She in turn responded by taking a step on a bare foot forward towards him, walking on her unrightfully owned water with the effort and grace of a feather.

"Navi, get to safety," he silently whispered to his fairy companion.

"But Link, this girl is--"

"I know what she is," he interrupted her, "Now get to a safe distance."

"No." She simply refused. "We stay together this time."

Despite her rejection to his order, he knew that she knew it wasn't an order, but only a slightly pressing request. He smirked with the utmost amusement at her stubborn behavior. "Alright. We'll play it fair this time. Just be sure to tell me something about the enemy that I wouldn't guess."

"Got it. Just get me close enough. Think you can manage?"

He eased his eyes into an unimpressed stare at his so-called 'opponent'. She was someone who looked as if the slightest touch in the world would shatter her. "She looks relatively harmless, don't you think?"

"Never underestimate a girl," Navi insisted. "We're really fierce when we would want to be."

He let out a singular half-chuckle. "Alright Navi, I promise I won't. Let's go."

"Okay."

He took out his Fairy Long Bow and aimed a shot for the girl wearing the pure, flawless gown. She tilted her head to the side with the innocence and curiosity of a newborn puppy. But then she took a slow-paced amble towards him walking on the water, yet leaving no ripples. Behind her, the sick gurgling of something mixing in the water made itself known to Link again, though increasing in volume at a deranged rate now.

She stopped her approach. "My identity…is…Morpha," she repeated, "The new guardian of the Water Temple…" Her pale, peaceful mouth suddenly extended from ear-to-ear in an inhuman shark-like smile with sharp, jagged teeth protruding out. _"…and former resident of Zora's Domain!!"_

Link's heart shot into his throat at both the sight of her twisted smile that was easily as ferocious as the copy he had fought earlier, and the gigantic tentacle shapes shooting out of the water behind her and lunging at him like gigantic snakes at monstrous speeds. He instinctively readied his Hookshot and pulled the latch aiming for the tall tree behind him with the long, sturdy branch protruding out one side (Lake Hylia's island tree, if anyone remembers) and yanked himself out of danger's reach.

The girl figure watched from down below, holding her evil smile in bliss amusement at the so-called 'hero' who would flee at her power.

Link stood at the edge of the tall tree branch and once again readied his bow. He aimed down at her, tugging the feather end of an arrow intensely at the bowstring. _'Gotta get a hit on her…'_ He gritted his teeth severely, getting that itching, irritated feeling from his gums as someone would get gritting their teeth under extreme pressure. _'Steady, steady…'_ The tip locked on to the young child's forehead. _'I have her!'_

But for some reason, he didn't fire. He lowered his bow. Seeing an opening, the girl's eyes narrowed intently, and the tentacles again shot for him on his position. He jumped off, and he heard the snap of the haughty branch that held him go into two. He landed hard on his feet, but bested the fall.

"Link, what's the matter with you?? You had a clear shot…" Navi's voice chided, as if she was perched right up next to his ear.

"I…" He lowered his head in shame for only a moment, knowing that the girl wouldn't wait around for him. "I can't kill her…" he muttered. "I know I need to, but I mean…_look_ at her. She's just a young girl! A child! I realize that my duty is to save Hyrule, but to have to kill someone like that… I-it's just too…"

"Link, that girl is _not_ just a child." She almost hissed in assurance. "Can't you tell by just looking at her now? There's something up with her. I don't know of any innocent, defenseless girl with eyes black as the Evil Realm and fangs that could rip a person's throat out."

He raised uncertain eyes back to the girl while she again ambled towards him, dripping all over. She came for him again, although she did look more human now that her contorted grin was back to normal length. She still looked a bit sinister, but only reaching the level of the young girl.

"Eee hee hee! You're weak, _weak,_ mister…" All innocence and purity in her voice just barely lingered on. "You would give…me an opening like that?"

"People – even girls like her are not the kind of people that we just run from when they try to kill us – especially not you. …Hero of Time."

He swallowed, and confirmed her words with a single nod. Taking his bow and arrow again, he fired his shot straight for her face. Her eyes widened watching it fly in so fast. It stopped right in front of her eye, caught just narrowly by one of her liquid tentacles. "Getting a bit conscientious, I see? Like that." While doing nothing on her own, the huge, lumbering mass of water bent itself back and catapulted itself at the hero. It came at him like a cobra strike, and he could do nothing about it.

It wound itself around him forcefully, and now that Morpha had finally caught him, she grinned in her feminine form wickedly at the misery she invoked with gradually tightening her grip around his waist. He gritted his teeth at the added feature of the very arrow he had shot at her that was still caught in the tentacle mass, slowly rubbing up and down his abdomen by the tip, leaving small cuts wherever she would let it travel through.

"You… Morpha…" He seethed her name in hatred.

The young girl giggled humbly at hearing her name through the hero's dying words. "So you remember me, do you? I'm really…happy. I think I will kill…you quickly now."

"You won't be rid of me…" He squeezed through his lungs. Using his free arm, he weakly reached into the bag at his side to look for something. While the girl's expression frowned slightly at the sight of the bomb Link held up, he finished with the only thing he had on his mind, "…Not without a fight."

He tossed the mechanism towards the stem of tentacle that confined him, and the fuse sparked. The explosion rang out, and the whole mass that restrained him had crumpled uselessly back into the lake. He followed it in once again, only to meet up with something very peculiar that had forcefully slammed into his belly from under. It didn't feel like water. Opening his eyes, he saw a strange sort of aquatic monster – a breathing ball the size of the bomb he threw. It looked to be some sort of jellylike substance surrounded by a membrane, and had a definite core. But Link had no time to worry about that.

Swimming back to the surface before he could get pelted again, he stuck his head back out, and instantly met up with the ankles of the pale girl standing on the water surface directly in front of him. He looked up at her, finding her silent leer creeping back down at him.

"When will…you just give in and let me…kill you?" She asked emotionlessly.

Link instinctively pulled his sword loose from its sheath that he had in his other arm, and delivered a long, clean sweep with the blade, going perfectly straight through both of her ankles keeping her up. She fell through the ground and instantly turned into part of the water she once stood on.

Link's eyes widened. "What?? A decoy…!" His head was instantly felt up with by a pair of slender hands composed of water, gently brushing against his skin with enough chills to send quite the shiver down his spine. "You poor…poor fool…" He could feel the calm voice of the young girl breathing winter onto the back of his neck. She was not going to let him get away that easily, he could tell that much. "You always try so hard…" The soft, harmless touch of her hands soon turned to stern tugging at his jaw, forcing his head to turn partway to the shape of the girl's head in water, leering at him with a white, dead eye of her aquatic, incomplete face. "Tell…me. …Are all your efforts really worth…it? Are you truly…happy?"

Link broke away from her grip and the seductiveness of her words, but he felt an invisible and unknown force trying to drag him down under by his lower half through the water. This fight was one-sided. Against her in the water, her element, _its_ element, he knew he'd never win.

"Link!" Navi's voice called out to him from underwater as he was being hurled forcefully around by the angry aqua poltergeist, "That girl is not this monster's true form! You must search for something tangible! Morpha must keep something close by!"

He shot unwillingly towards the lake bottom, and there was no enchantment to protect him this time.

It was far too late to think. Far too late to defend himself. Far too late to save himself. This amoeba creature…was going to kill him.

Bracing himself for anything that the invisible force would throw him at, it was the only thing he could do. Navi rang helplessly for her companion. There was nothing she could do either.

"Link, watch out!!"

For the second time that night, Link's vision went completely, utterly…blank. Dead. He heard the delighted giggle of a young girl slowly echo into the distance.

Drifting alone in his own sub consciousness, he floated endlessly in the void beyond. His eyes were closed in a sort of sleeping state. He had never felt more exhausted in his whole life.

…_Have I…_

He drifted and drifted along nothingness. Navi's light was gone. Everything was silent as the grave, but he clung weakly to his own thoughts.

…_been bested…?_

He had lost everything. The Spiritual Stones, the Ocarina of Time, the Master Sword, the Temples, the Medallions, everything had failed. He had failed. Now that he had nothing left, he realized, the land belonged to Ganondorf now. In that instant of thought, he felt sorry for Zelda. For Saria, Malon, Darunia, Ruto…all the ones he knew he would let down if this was ever allowed to happen.

No fairy was going to save him this time.

All there was left to do now was to close his eyes to the living one last time…and……

'_Tch…'_

From the farthest, deepest, darkest reaches of his mind, there was a violent sneer as nothing ever before had he heard. The voice sounded tired, but at the same time, breathed in malice – brooding in blatant disappointment.

'_You idiot. You great fool. Can't you do anything by yourself?? Surely I was much stronger than this little demon ever showed you…'_

Link wanted to answer back, but couldn't. He had no voice. He didn't even know where he would speak. There was only what was in front of him – that was all that existed. But he couldn't find the source of the malicious voice either. It protruded in an echo from everywhere and nowhere. Bold, but weary.

'_You are…an embarrassment…but if I simply must help you…I can do so only this once.'_ the voice inside shrugged, knowing full well that there was no compensation for what it seemed ready to do…at least none that Link would ever know. _'I am very tired now, if you couldn't take a direct hint, so I can only lend you my powers momentarily. 'Tis all I can do…for us. …Try to make the best of them…or I will make your miserable essence burn and break all the way to Limbo.'_

With this last threat, Link was dragged by something to regained self-consciousness; back into the world of reality…and unknown to himself only yet…out of a world of nightmares.

He opened his eyes in time to be stung by a powerful red color in his face. He inadvertently tasted it. His blood. It floated lightly in a murky cloud with him directly in it. When it cleared only partially, he could pick out a big fissure he had made in the blue stone surface that could only be part of the Water Temple. The same temple whose new usurping rule wanted him exterminated.

Something was wrong. His body instantly caught fire, bursting into an ominous red and black torrent of insane masses of power all around him. He felt his skin almost seem to melt straight off his bones, and the overwhelming power had the strong scent of cinnamon spices. Yet along with all the cons that went along with his knew condition, he had to admit that in a strange, really strange way, he felt somewhat…_good._ He felt like he wasn't floating in water, but that the oppressing force of gravity himself had been removed from the world. He felt he could do anything. He didn't know what was happening to him, but dream or nightmare; he wasn't exactly sure what to make of it.

The figure of the girl standing on the surface of the water far above calmly turned her head back down at the depths of her lake, and her ghostly eyes instantly widened at the sight of blood red fire peaking out from the depths of the cursed water.

"No…fair. That's…cheating." She quietly told the person far beneath her.

The ugly ball swimming around in the water near him instantly throbbed away, making a desperate escape. The fire around Link buzzed vigorously with orange electricity, and in the blink of an eye, he launched himself through the water like a torpedo, and slammed into the girl standing on the surface with monstrous deliverance. Her upper half split in two, and water went everywhere.

However, the girl slowly mended herself together, quickly absorbing the intake of the blast. "Ohh…look at the hero…now…" She teased harshly. "Deciding to cheat…can't even play…fair with a little girl…"

The form standing before her on the surface of the water near the island with the tree was something different than the hero she had fought before. Now he was shirtless, revealing that half of his body had been engulfed with something incredibly dark under his well-built figure. His blue tunic's hat was gone, leaving a shower of long hair, one side was his normal blond, and the other was a sleek black. The darkness engulfing his right half kept a border on his body marked with disgusting black veins that seemed to creep out as if to try their best to take over as much of the other half of his body as possible.

His face was emotionless, staring straight through the little regenerating girl with one sky blue eye, and one blood red, slit pupil eye; something that looked to be inherited only by a demon. His stare held little regard for her life, and he absently bit down on the corrupted side of his lip using a sharp, silverish canine fang. The dangerous aura continued crackling all around him. He was a terrifying sight to behold – not much shorter of an abomination.

"You really are…pathetic…do you realize that, hero?" She asked him from her spot with folded arms, much more in a casual tone than a taunting one – like she just thought she was being an innocent girl by speaking her mind. "You are not…Hyrule's last hope…you are merely…a pawn in this game. Yes…"

The tentacles threw themselves at the 'new' Link.

"Please let me put you out of your misery. You're already dead…you just don't know it yet."

Link disappeared, taking the fire flaring all around him, and spontaneously, the tentacles she sent after him collapsed back into their natural state.

'_Ah! Fast…'_ She thought, instinctively leaping a little farther back. _'Is this…_his_ power?'_ She gritted her fangs in worry, catching a small glimpse of fire and crackling to the side. She squinted to look at the tainted hero. Then she gasped out loud. For the first time in the entire battle, she had shown fear.

"T-two swords?? Not…possible!"

Oh but there were indeed. The great hero looked at her from his side profile with nothing happening to his expression, no look of happiness or pity, of anger or weariness, only of what had apparently always been…

With a firm, tight grasp, he held the holy Master Sword in one hand…and in the other…something that looked like it had been forged out of the deepest void of the Evil Realm. A weapon contradicting everything good and just that its twin stands for, yet brought together with by the same wielder, but only able to touch one side – the invaded one. Deadly thorns of pitch black engraved themselves along the razor's edge, and a bright red jewel was set into the hilt of the handle.

With both blades in hand, Link appeared no longer a living being, but more of a thoughtless beast controlled only by the will to rip apart the only creature that he saw – and that was Morpha.

"T-this…this cannot be possible! No fair…"

But her rival took a step over the water closer to her. She started slowly going into a panic. With a lash of desperation, she sent wave after wave of tentacles after him, intent on beating him into nothingness.

She pitched a horrible fit – a natural thing for a girl to do, but a frenzy along with it that only monsters were capable of. "No fair, no fair, no fair, no fair, _no fair!!_" She screamed frantically and wildly, looking possibly absent-minded of what she was doing while the swirling of the organic orb under the water continued its cycle of rotations to bring the water to life. The tentacles all directed themselves to one place, constantly striking again and again at where Link was standing. The sound of trucks colliding gave through with the merciless lashing of the strong arms. She continued her almost unintelligible wailing.

"Die, you! Die, die, die, die, die-!!"

Something had caught her wrist, bringing her whole breakdown to a screeching halt. She quivered up at the towering figure above her. Leaving her no opportunity to do anything, let alone beg for mercy, Link took his new right arm and swung at her in a streak of black. He smacked her across the face so hard that the water droplets making up her head flew for miles away. Her head slowly regenerated again, revealing a severely horrified young face. Her black eyes glistened with outrage at his cruel action towards her although she had actually felt nothing.

"How…how _dare_ you!! Strike a young lady like that! You call yourself a _man?!_" But her words held no meaning to the young Hylian – he was already half out of his mind. With another arm already prepared, he swung the Master Sword at her miniature frame, and the remainder of her body succumbed to a great white light. There was nothing more left.

Staring blankly down, Link found the ball that had once been swimming around near the bottom floating helplessly up to the top. It had almost completely stopped its movements. It was rendered completely helpless, like a fish with all of its fins cut off. He stared nonchalantly down at the throbbing creature. It was desperately struggling to keep alive.

He calmly moved his eyes up as if he were in a trance at the water ahead of him trying its hardest to compose the body of the girl again. It looked like she was attempting to communicate to him with everything she had. The slender legs were fully shaped once again, as well as the lower half of the body, but she seemed to be experiencing intense difficulty and turbulence with keeping her arms together and her head on her shoulders. The meshing water drooped everywhere around the pitifully striving shape.

"…Only…a pawn… Only… GAHHHH!!" Her whole body rippled and writhed at the same time, coursing all the way through with electricity. She collapsed helplessly to the ground and struggled weakly to force her head to look up at Link, holding his darkened palm down to the rounded, water-dwelling creature that was struggling for life enough as it already was. Red static continued down through it, and she could easily see that it was generated from her opponent's hand. But she also saw a bloody Triforce insignia engraved on the top of it. She let her head drop to the water again in wonder.

"My body… You're a…terrible person…torturing somebody like this…"

She was interrupted once again and continued her screams, shot through once more with hot-colored static. It was clear both to her and Link that whatever happened to that orb really happened to her. Which meant they were one and the same.

As soon as it ceased, she drew a quick breath so as not to waste any time with this barbarian. "But it _is_ true!! You are nothing but a puppet…a dog to all of Hyrule!! You are nothing at all but-!!"

"**SILENCE!!"**

A voice emulated darkly from Link. It was not his own. And as it spoke, it shook the earth and water around them, and the fiery aura around him seemed to fan into twice its size, showing that he had been hiding some unnatural fury through this silent, emotionless trance.

She opened her mouth in fear and awe at the impact that the menacing voice had on her, and she dared not speak again to protest.

"**A pawn, am I? A dog? Then what does it make **_**you**_**, I wonder?"**

"Mm…" She turned her head away to avoid the bloody eye shining brightly at her as if they were trying to cut through her body. She may have avoided his eyes, but she could never ever drown out his insidious, gravely voice.

"**A human?"** He giggled eerily.

She continued to face away, giving no answer.

"**A Zora?"** He tried again.

"N-no…" She struggled out while she continued staring at the invisible object on the other side. He could see her shoulders slightly ripple with a shudder. He grinned. Bingo. It was obviously denial.

"**Or perhaps you're just some pathetic half breed…"**

She snapped her head around to face him without a second thought. She gave him an enraged glare, and the water all around her boiled with intense heat from her anger. "Shut up!! Just shut up!! You know nothing about me!!"

"**Oh, but I do. …I know you."** He calmly objected, hiding very well to himself of how wrong she really was.

"How could you be doing something like this?! It's cruel! I don't care how much you think you're going to save Hyrule, doing something this vile is low, even for your kind-!! _AHHH!!_"

She let out another squeal of pain with another charge from Link's hand. The static complied in chasing from the orb to her body made of water, roaring loudly. It took her longer than last time to recover from the blast of concentrated power. When she did, she hastily sat back up and panted loudly and exasperatedly, her dark eyes dilating intensely with shock.

"Hah…hah-hah…can't be happening…" She coughed out. "…just…can't be happening to me. I'm just a girl… I'm just trying to be a good girl…"

"…**I think we both know that's not true."**

She narrowed her eyes at the twisted version of the hero she had once considered weak and pathetic. Now there was nothing left of him that she could see. There was no more childish innocence in his eyes. It was replaced by lack of pity and mercy. There was no more sensitivity for the life and safety of others showing in his face. There was only ceaseless madness. That is what he had now become.

"…If I call you…by your true name…_Link,_" she grudgedly hissed the name out in hatred, "Then tell me…who you…really are. Are you truly the one…who is going to save Hyrule…? Or was I told a lie…?" She stared him straight in the eyes. The eyes stared coldly back at her.

He shook his head with a smirk on his face, looking as if he was hiding some secret that everyone knew about except for her.

"**You still don't get it…do you, you stupid wretch?"** He smiled at her with his right fang visible.

She leaned forward weakly. "What?" She inquired. "What is it that I don't get?"

He lowered his head. The long bangs of his hair hid his normal eye well under a shadow, but the other bright red eye glowed out from under at the now defenseless monster.

"…**I'm not Link anymore."**


	4. Two Curse

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Legend of Zelda**

**Chapter 4: Two Curse**

The aquatic amoeba, Morpha, had gotten up to its feet in the form of the young girl. Like before, all water had slipped into her, giving her bettered posture, and possibly to give her better resilience against further electrical attacks, surrounding her in a neatly-coated shell.

The half-tainted hero glanced at her with one normal aqua blue eye, where the other eye had now reverted from a bright-shining red to a potent golden slit. He could sense that she was striking her more defensive pose, lowering her limits with her custom water offensively in favor of keeping her own health sustained. But Link smiled, for this was his intention, backing her up into a corner with no place to run and no way to win.

"Your fealty to the Evil King is _**as waves washing to an eroded shore."**_ His voice shifted in synchronized echo, from his normal voice, to an increasingly horrid one. He held his swords in play in a sort of way to give his body a kind of symmetry as he finished his jeer. **"Scoured, abraded…gnawed upon."**

"Heh," a grin drew company to her fanged mouth, "Master Ganondorf…is the only thing keeping us alive."

"**Bring him** here," He invited her, raising his swords up a tad, "Bring him _**here…and beg him to **_save you, Morpha. I want to see what he would do."

She bit down on her lip so hard that water was seeping out of the cut she made. Her pale slender hands drew to the water below, and the fluid stuck to her fingertips, amassing in volume up her arms to create two massive water tentacles. "You won't scare me anymore."

"**Then come and die quickly."**

The water mirage had the power of a lake behind her, and with her arms, she wielded it against the lone hero in an attempt to crush him under, and while at it, take half of Hyrule Field with him.

All of Lake Hylia was under the star-populated sky, moving for the whims of one creature just to crush another.

The child's feet embedded into the water that she stood upon, and Link continued to survey her from the island with the tree that had served as the lake's landmark for so long. As she continued her surf to smite him, he saw the wave rush just behind her to back her up. He stood his ground fearlessly, and waited for her to get close enough.

"This is my ultimate…attack! Focus your attention on this form and crush it! It changes nothing. This spell will crush you all the same! Die, and drag your soiled ambitions with your corpse to the bottom of my lake. And I…shall add your corpse to my collection!!!"

"Oh, so now it's **suicide, is it."** His face showed no trouble at what the monster was planning. With its enormous body, it would throw all desperation into one final attack, and the siren would crush the good land's last resurgence.

The girl had shifted herself forward to dive unto him and sink the whole island with him, and by that time, all signs of the childlike innocence she once had on her face were gone. Her black Zora eyes had gone white with demonic rage, and her fangs were out in a twisted smile. "After I finish you, all of Hyrule joins ME!!! From Lakebed to Great Bay, I will be COMPLETE!!!"

In a flash blur, the half-consumed hero disappeared from his post, and her expression quickly changed into shock on sign of his corrupted eyes piercing hers in two-inch's distance. **"You're** _sad._"

In sudden swiftness, he reached out his darkened hand and poked her forehead with his index finger. Her eyes shot full circle, and the whiteness slowly left them. They closed slowly in pain, and her entire face trembled under fixed effort as a white rune slowly appeared on Link's right hand. Where the Triforce of Courage was on his right hand, another version of the Triforce held Morpha's head in place, shining inside of a detailed seal with other ominous markings. The sound of a white ray broke her ears, and in the end she could do nothing but let out a silent scream as her body tragically dissipated along with what was left of the once pure Lake Hylia.

It steamed and boiled into vapor, and in some time passing, the possessed Hylian stood triumphant at the sandy, empty bottom of the lake. Steam was venting out in occasional spots still, like geysers spewing forth, and it would be a while before all smoke had left. Next to his feet, the true form of Morpha lay, barely alive without water, but miraculously so due to the incredible output of Link's attack as he single-handedly dissolved its last power. It was throbbing with the same manner to which a coy fish would gape its mouth open for air, and the young man chuckled with cruelty at what he had done to it.

It had the appearance and size of a giant squid's eye, and he picked it up with both hands.

In its last precious moments of life, the ball squirmed to get free, but at full health, Link would have been impervious to any manner of its effort.

"No, please don't get up." He pleaded calmly in his regular voice, the life of that young girl cradled gently in his hands.

The forte of a squash and splatter echoed all throughout the crater of the empty lake on cue of Morpha's body being quickly replaced by a roaring jet of bloody flames that Link so effortlessly held.

"…**It's easier to die when a friend is willing to help you out."**

Blood was blotched in tiny spots on his handsome and wicked face. Some blotches were big enough to stream down his cheeks. For half a minute, he stared aimlessly down at the ground, thinking of nothing, only bathing his body in the mixture of monster fluid and hot water vapor. Had victory for him ever felt so…refreshing? He meditated silently in his dark-stained state as long as it took for the aura of bright blue light to appear from behind him. An angelic tune soon haloed throughout the area in song as a familiar figure stepped out of it.

Her pale white hands were clasped in sheer worry, and the fins, usually lively and flapping around the sides of her body, were drooped. Her amethyst eyes were full of sorrow and mourn, staring at her fiancé in his present state.

Yes, it was none other than Princess Ruto, a girl with a seven-year-old longing for Link to become a permanent part of her life, not just as a friend, but as a lover, and as her just and noble king alongside her.

But now she was looking at the back of a fallen and broken man, but she prayed hard to the Goddesses that it was nothing outside of the Sages' ability to reverse.

Her solemn eyes awoke in startled horror as she watched her Hero of Time sink down lower to the sandy ground and get into a crouched position over something. There she heard his twisted voice speak, yet not the words so clearly in her mind.

With some of her champion's courage she had hoped he would share with her, she took a reluctant step forward, and slowly, she advanced to the now cloth-torn Hylian, and what he had his attention to.

She stopped four feet from his shoulders.

"Link," she began. "…Lake Hylia."

"_Mmm?"_ An eerie voice answered her cracking call.

"…What…has happened to the lake?"

Nobody moved for another minute, and then the torn prince stood up strong and stepped to the side for the new Sage of Water to see. He smirked with a silverish fang to his right side when he saw her hands clasp over her mouth. She was horrified at the sight.

But in the end, she removed any manner of showing it while lowering her hands from her face. It was as if she had been expecting it the whole time. Dreading it horribly, but expecting it. And the worst had now come to pass.

She walked slowly up besides Link, and then Link, in surprisingly aloof behavior, crossed away from her, passing her shoulder with his own.

She dropped to her knees, and held the gravely injured Zora in front of her tightly in her arms.

"Astacia. My dear friend…"

The other girl's faded black eyes opened slightly to her, and then she turned to shiver, as if freezing. "R-Ruto…" She spoke through stutters. "…It's…b-been awhile…" Her breath was short, but her voice was soft and pleasant.

Ruto hushed her silently, and then with her thumb, she wiped off some blood coming off through the corner of her mouth. "I'm sorry. You shouldn't talk. I see that it hurts you."

Her closest and most endearing childhood friend stared blankly at her. "…It's my last moment…" She revealed to her. "Am I not entitled by our princess t-…to say a few things…?" She chuckled weakly, and was then interrupted by a short series of violent coughs.

"Astacia…!" Ruto clutched her friend closer, tears brewing in the windows of her eyes.

"Ah…that damn Gerudo man…cursing me into that form like he did…"

The princess looked at her sternly. "We can help you." She tried. But the other Zora just gave her head one loose shake, and from then on, Ruto knew not to push.

"And…it's a shame. There was so much I wanted to catch up with you. To talk with you again, but now my eyes darken…and it seems…unlikely…" Something else caught her friend's eye, and with curiosity, she answered it. "Is that…your hero up there…?" Astacia asked her, inferring to Link. The two girls looked at the form of tattered blue from his tunic as he stood facing away, apparently trying his best to keep from being involved.

Turning back silently, Ruto nodded sheepishly. "He, umm, looked different…when I fell in love with him."

"Did he now…?" Her wounded friend giggled weakly. "He's very handsome… Since seven years ago, he was all you ever talked about to me, and I insisted you would introduce me…"

Ruto felt burden on her heart again, and again the tears came. "Astacia…"

"…But I never did see the man that you intended to marry, and after a good half year or so, the same tales about him began to dull on me…and soon after that point, I could hardly stand his name." She put her hand on Ruto's cheek, and trying not to look at her, she continued, "Wasn't that about the time…we stopped being friends…?"

"I always believed that you were my friend." Ruto insured her. "But you wouldn't speak to me anymore. Then I blamed myself, because I realized that I focused more on the future with Link…than on the current with you. We were children back then…and I guess I got a bit too excited." She took her friend's hand off of her cheek and placed it gently back to her side. "…For that, you have my deepest apologies. A seven-year-old apology that I had waiting for all this time to give you…but then you disappeared."

"I became jealous, Ruto." Astacia admitted. "It wasn't your entire fault." She glared weakly away. "…I just…got tired of hearing you talk about some boy that you hardly even spent any time with at all…and I despaired in believing that the time that we spent…and the fun we had as best friends paled in comparison with that one adventure with him that you always told me about. I felt lonely… But in the end, I could see what it is that you see inside of that boy. Link…aaaahh finally I can say his name and not get angry…"

Ruto smiled under her tears.

"…He really is our hero…isn't he? When I was…afflicted, I probably said some things to him that I shouldn't have. So…when I keel…you punch him for me, okay?"

Ruto couldn't help but laugh at that. She knew Astacia well enough to recognize her rather non-feminine touch on things. "You are _such_ a tomboy."

Her friend only smiled in response. "Well, you just can't imagine how long I've spent in that watered-down form to use that personality again. …Just be sure and grab that bastard before Zelda or someone else gets him. …How's that for a dying wish, ne?"

Ruto gave her friend one last hug, being sure not to be too tight or too gentle. "I'll do that. Thank you…my friend."

"…I always was…your biggest supporter." Ruto's heart dropped. This was something that Astacia always used to say when they were children. When they were friends, laughing together and making fun of the role that Ruto would one day have to play.

Astacia gave her one last quiet smile, and then let her head drop silently.

Ruto stared down at her lost friend for a long moment, until finally the heaviness of grief had become too much for her heart to bear.

She cradled Astacia's faded head into her arms, and let out a long cry.

Link, though he too was afflicted by similar yet very distinctly different corruption, still saw to leaving the grieving Zora princess alone in her last moments with her closest childhood friend. It wasn't until she had finished her mourning long later that he turned to gaze upon her, eager to hear what the new Sage had to say.

Ruto's expression looking at Link as he was now was filled with mistrust. Even so, she spoke. "I _know_ you're not the man I planned to marry, darkling. Nevertheless, without your help, perhaps Link would not be so fortunate as to escape my friend. So for that…and _only_ that…you have my thanks."

The mind-washed Hylian grinned at her. "Would you _**hear her**_** story, princess?** **About how **Morpha came to be?" His voice continued its potent shifts.

"Her name is Astacia." Ruto hissed.

"…Your pardon. **Astacia.** I thought you might. **You see, before you came, I did you a favor and…squeezed a bit of her history out. **_**Did you know that Ganondorf needed a Zora to invade **_the Water Temple and its sanctity? Not just _**any**_** Zora, either."** He shook his index finger. **"A **_**special**_** kind of Zora with **information on the temple, its secrets, _**and…"**_ Ruto saw his right eye instantly revert back to its bloody red. **"…a connection to a **_**very**_** important princess – an **_**icon to the Zora race."**_

"How…" She was disgusted by his level of knowledge. "How could you possibly know that??"

"**Oh I think you'll find that I'm quite capable of getting information around by myself.** My lovely Princess Ruto. **If even you weren't aware of the Evil King's intentions to begin with, **_**then perhaps your dear friend's life would not have been a necessary thing to waste."**_

Ruto's hatred was reaching the surface. Yet in mixed feeling, she struggled hard to hold her grief. "Your words are revolting. Close your mouth before it attracts keese."

Link suddenly appeared from around her shoulder. "Oh but wait – **there is more."** She glared back at him with cursing eyes. Instantly, his right eye reacted by changing back its golden flare. In Link's normal voice, he resumed, "Ganondorf's plan – it seems – was not merely to corrupt the sacred temple, but for the larger goal of demoralizing all Zoras everywhere in mind."

"Just stop!"

Link switched shoulders; his speaking pace was getting faster. "From Zora's Domain to Zora Cape, all the way down to Atlantis – all of your people everywhere would wither under your rule – a dry rule, with no friend and a dead hero. An empty duchess with a hollow bosom, ruled under by black kingdom led by—"

His speech was cut clean short by a surprisingly powerful slap to the face from the princess. A bone in his neck cracked loudly as he snapped his head back to face her again, wearing the same smirk as before.

After staring him down for half a minute, she replied, "Astacia was looking for a hero to free her from Ganondorf. A tomboy who would never admit that she needed help from anybody was waiting for Link. She remembered all of my stories of his nobility, and in that temple, she was waiting quietly for her last hope." She turned her attention to Link's normal blue eye, as if to speak to it. "You've done her a great service, Link. I hope you realize that."

"**Aaah, and I was also in that temple for—"**

"Still your tongue!!!" She snapped violently at the cruel voice. "I was not speaking to you." With a smile for her to continue, she did. "My friend was waiting for the same hero I was."

* * *

_Flashback-_

* * *

"_If I call you…by your true name…Link," her voice spoke it in hatred – her cursed heart was desperate. "Then tell me…who you…really are. Are you truly the one…who is going to save Hyrule…? Or was I told a lie…?"_

* * *

_-End_

* * *

"_Ah so it __**was**_** you she was giving that little shout out to. 'Was I told a lie?' She was addressing **_**you**_**, princess. Well, prophecy fulfilled, I freed that fish for you."**

"And now, I will fulfill my prophecy to Link, and free him from your control. As my esteemed duty and honor as a Sage…and his wife, I find nothing short of privilege from it."

In reaction, Link drew his blackened sword to her. "Ooooh I think _not, _**your highness. To be felled by you would be to cut a good story short. I wait for another, but not for you."** He shot behind her with lightning speed, with his sword raised high, he planned to execute her. **"Join your dear Astacia in extinction."**

The blade fell down on her, and stopped an inch short of her amazed face. Link grimaced at the heaviness that the sword suddenly felt to him. With all of his spare efforts, he struggled to finish bringing the blade down to finish her, but something was holding her back. In his left hand, the true Triforce blazed fiercely in golden light, and the darker Link felt his strength being sapped short of every second. He tried again and again, but the holy trinity barred him back, and he ultimately chucked the sword, grinning.

"**It seems that the hero wants that I don't harm you. Unfortunately, good things last not forever. I'll come back for you, princess, and any other fool Sage that gets in my way. I'd offer you a parting gift, but I'm a bit short of power at the moment. …Fare**_**well."**_

With a final threat, the stain on Link's body shrank. He let out a loud shout as red static enveloped his body, coursing through all cracks and scars that his doppelganger had left him.

Ruto watched terrified as her fiancé collapsed into the ground, and when she ran up to him, she was relieved to see that he was alive, and better yet, looking more like the man she chose to be her husband.

He looked different without his hat, and he was practically bare-chested from the punishment he took. The Princess of the Zoras held him close, stroking the bed of his hair. "…You've had a long day." She whispered into him. "Let's get you to Sheik. I have thanks of my own to give him, anyway." She looked on to where they were headed; the island in the center of Lake Hylia, and with somber expression, she finished, "The days are darkening."

With unconsciousness, Link slept. And the black teeth marks clung to his right hand evermore.

* * *

When Link awoke, he was under a warm, comfortable bed inside of a house with nothing visible but a flame blazing in the fireplace. How he had gotten there, any hero who last remembers fighting a lake monster underwater could ask the same.

But Link's curiosity inherited by the Kokiri overtook any of his fears or suspicions, and if he could force his body to move, he would explore his whereabouts.

"You're awake."

His ears perked up, and he recognized the voice immediately.

"A true hero who is stripped of his strength and honor still swears undying fealty to his deities and protectors." Sheik began his lesson. "Such loyalty falling in the right place will be rewarded with miracles. Even if sometimes, those miracles are found only in Shadow. My predecessor, Impa, believed this too. The question is…" He saw the shadow turn its head towards him from the back of the chair overlooking the fireplace. "How can a Hero of Time, given his pure heart, holy steel, and vast noble intentions wield that shadow to keep it from becoming a curse?"

Link thought for a while, and then gave his answer. "…Sometimes, men should keep their shadows close. They serve as a compass to where the light is. …But never should a man place full reliance in his shadow…especially if it tries to kill him. That's just what I believe."

He listened to the Sheikah sigh graciously. "I see… So you don't believe in using the dark for a weapon or for cover, merely as a guide. You have a good heart, but beware of where that darkness points you. You do that, and you will always find your home near truth…even if it takes you far from your companions."

The discussion was relaxing in the dark. Through the flames, Link could only see half of Sheik clearly. The other half was blended in the dark.

"Where have you taken me?" Link asked him.

"Kakariko Village. You'll be recovering here from the time being, out of reach of Ganondorf now that the dreaded dragon Volvagia is dead."

"…Speaking of dreaded things, whatever happened to Morpha, Sheik?"

"Ruto told me all about it. A close friend of hers, a girl by the name of Astacia, met an unfortunate end involving that monster."

His heart sank. "Oh no…was she eaten?"

Concealed under his veil and vestments, the ninja merely shook his head quietly.

Link asked another question. "Ruto didn't involve herself, did she? If she tried to help me, she would've thrown herself in danger too."

"Ruto is fine, but at the moment, I would advise against approaching her. She has…been through a lot."

Link swallowed and nodded his head with understanding. "If I made her worry, I should apologize when she's feeling better."

"It's best to keep your sympathy. I'm sure she knows very well that you were sorry. As we speak, she resides in the Water Temple now as the newest Sage, awaiting the next rainfall upon Lake Hylia, so that the lake may be fully restored."

"Ah, yes, the lake… Sheik…it evaporated…right?"

Upon getting another nod, he turned his resting head to gaze at the wooden ceiling of the house they were in. "So weird…remembering some details but forgetting others during the same situation…you understand what I mean?"

Sheik rose from his chair and approached the door. "…Get some rest."

Link watched silently as he opened the door and shut it behind him, leaving him in the house by himself with naught but the bright fire to keep him company.

But just when he realized his loneliness did he see a speck of blue hue buzz in through the cabin's only window. Seeing it so many times, he had no trouble recognizing.

"That's my fairy partner for you," he jested as Navi flew closest, "I suppose you defeated Morpha and saved my hide, eh?"

"…That's very funny."

He smiled up at her facetiously. "Did you drag me out of the water while I was unconscious too? Is that how a got here?"

"…_You're_ very funny."

"Oh, come on, don't be modest! Sometimes partners save partners, it happens, I won't grudge about it."

"Link."

"Yessums."

"…I get it. But Morpha separated us, and if I had inched near her even a little, she would've crushed me for stardust."

Link switched tones with her instantly. "…Did you get a good look at the battle while I was gone? Is Morpha dead?"

"…Uuuuh yeah, it's gone…"

He rested his head back onto the pillow. "Ah, that's good. I wouldn't want to have left that place in complete failure, considering how far we've come and everything…""

The fairy fluttered cautiously overhead, serving as a second light source for the dark cabin. "Link, um, I have a request to make. When you see Ruto again, don't mention Morpha. This is probably the best advice I've given you all week."

He squinted at her. "Huh? Well, okay…should I ask you why this is necessary to avoid?"

"…It's a long story."

_**'One I would be happy to tell…hero.'**_

Link's eyes shot open. A chilling mist surrounded him instantly, and his pulse started to race. He remembered that voice. He felt it burn in his head, through his ears. It was as real as the air he breathed, and it was right here with him.

'_I killed you.'_ He tried to remind himself. _'You're dead.'_

His self-explaining was inevitably washed out by cruel, unrelenting laughter.

* * *

"Hoo, hoo!" The creature speaking in distress was by all means an owl; the owl that had seen Link to about every end that his quest had taken him thus far, and was now inversely rotating his head at what the Sheikah next to him had said. "That can't be possible, why would that being simply appear at the Temple of Water? If it is who you say, he would have found his home in a place much more welcoming to his malevolent personality."

"If it is who I say," Sheik added, his hands behind his back in a scholar's posture, "He would jump for an opportunity to find a strong vessel. He was in that temple – he _wanted_ to be defeated by Link."

The two were outside of the house that used to belong to Impa, where Link was now recovering. Kakariko village went along its usual run-of-the-windmill business, the carpenters working, the teens laughing near the entrance at each others' wayward jokes. Because of their positive history, the Sheikah were greatly admired, so nobody held qualm about letting the 'last' of them keep a home in a village that actually belonged to a Sheikah in the first place. And that being said, no one took extreme concern at the gigantic talking owl now perched upon the red tile roof speaking to one.

Kaepora Gaebora was a keen animal who had surprisingly had his share of books, and the rumor that he had once been a Sage hardly did him justice. If anyone had any advice to give in a situation like this besides the Princess of Wisdom, it would be him. Cocking his great head again while the last of the Sheikah faced away, his feathered eyebrows quickly turned into a strange mustache while the pattern on his chin resembled a rather large pair of eyes.

"Has she lost her moxie over the age? Hoo! How could a queen allow her ex-veterans to spill into our realm? Doesn't she owe us enough that she should take care of her problems so that they don't become _ours?"_

Sheik stared on in ponder, attempting to piece everything together with the wise bird. His red eye pierced deep into the invisible object he gazed upon. "I would think that she was to do her best, especially considering their past belligerency. Who would have thought that such a solemn realm could invoke war?"

"Hoo hoot! Not that it would be any of our concern, but what's happening to the boy is becoming _our_ issue too."

Sheik turned back to his long-time friend. "What is it that you would plan to do?"

"Well I'm not the king of Hyrule, it would be too great a scale for my place to say…but if I would suggest something, it would be not to go to war with the Twili. This matter is greatly exaggerated and very unlikely to happen, but on this predicament, that's as bold as a geezer like me comes. Hoot, hoo hooo!"

"Kaepora, please, we need your advice."

"Pray tell," the owl answered. "What ever happened to Princess Zelda? Her wisdom would surely come of aid."

The ninja's mellow ember eye stared at the wisdom avatar a bit longer, and then turning his hood away, he replied, "Princess Zelda is of no use to us where she is. She abandoned Hyrule years ago."

"Abandoned?" He inquired. "Fled for lack of choice, perhaps…?"

"…"

"What to do about the boy? We cannot shun Hyrule's only savior. But someone must tell him."

"If anyone shall…" Sheik decided, "It should be Princess Zelda. It's thanks to her that he is in this situation to begin with."

"Hoo, hoooo. You seem to have quite the pickle with our princess, Sheikah." Kaepora noticed. "I wouldn't ask why, but I believe that you cast too much blame upon that girl. What has happened is out of even a princess's control. Not for her lack of ability as a ruler or a friend. You should remember that, hooo hoot!"

"Hmph…I'll keep that in mind."

"HooooOOOO, the mountains call. I must be off. Do say hello to the boy for me now, won't you?"

The Sheikah shook his head silently. For anything its worth, the owl was of hardly any help. But then again, perhaps the best answers come with time.

Somehow, the bird had come to sense that Sheik felt this, and with a final stair and a twirl of his head, he added in, "A good princess flees not for the sake of her good, but out of the good of her country and its people. I for one believe that Princess Zelda made a wise decision those seven years ago. When the Land of Hyrule calls, her majesty will answer. Hoo hoo hoot!"

Sheik rapidly turned around in startle, yet saw only a few long brown feathers drifting from where the giant owl left his perch. Then he turned and looked overhead to the orange sunrise beyond the trees as the humongous shadow flapped steadily for Death Mountain.

From under his veil, the shinobi smiled. "…Thanks, Kaebora. Let's hope you're right about me."

Just then, Navi came racing out the window in a panic. Tiny chimes rapidly rang as she zigged and zagged around Sheik. On alert, the ninja answered the fairy's distress signal. "What's wrong, Navi?"

"It's-It's Link!" The tiny voice spattered. "He's…talking to himself!"


	5. The Well of Kakariko

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Legend of Zelda**

**Chapter 5: The Well of Kakariko**

The door of Link's temporary reclining area burst asunder. If Sheik had applied much more force in his hurry to see the illogical and fantastical sight that Navi had only mentioned, the door would have spun off its hinges. Not broken off. _Spun_ off.

As the shinobi's ember eyes peered wildly around where Link had been left off not two minutes ago, he slightly cringed with disdain. The room was empty.

Sheik hurriedly racked his brain. How? Where could he have slipped away to in such a short time? The ninja already realized how he had left and entered through the only door in the cabin. If Link were coming out, he would have detected him quickly whether Link wanted it or not.

But with revelation, the Sheikah's gaze caught on to a long pillar of dim morning light touching the middle of the wooded floor, and as he followed it up to the source – a solitary window that had been left open – Link's disappearing act was no longer such a big wonder.

Sheik sighed through his veil, and with a powerful, almost inhuman leap, he found his way up to the window that his partner had obviously escaped out of. The stream of light seeping out of the window broke apart with his interference, darkening the small chamber below. Perched on the sill, he had to lean low because of the window's inconvenient size. With a keen eye inherited only by rigorous training, he quickly plucked a tiny piece of cloth caught on one of the larger splints in the woodwork.

"Medical gauze," he murmured to himself, recognizing the material of the bandages he used to patch Link up. "He went through here, alright."

With a hawk's eye view, he proceeded to scan the village below. There was a good view of the windmill rotating lamely. And the villagers engaged in their daily aspirations.

As he continued searching for a lead on where Link might have taken foot to, a sliver of blue light shimmered up over his shoulder.

"He's gone?" Navi reluctantly inquired, although at the same time realizing the blatant situation. "How could he disappear that fast? I must have left him for thirty seconds most to come get you."

Sheik kept quiet, leering intently below.

"…I guess he's a lot healthier than we realized." Navi continued. "But you should've seen how…_panicked_ he looked. I've never seen such a look like that on anyone; he was like a wild animal."

The Sheikah continued to ignore the fairy, and instead scaled down the side wall, outside into the waking sun. His leather greaves hit the grass pad below with a soft thud, and he began a swift sprint forward. He stopped by the first person he saw – a young boy balancing himself on the edge of the well.

"Aref," Sheik called the boy softly, but with recognizable authority, "What are you doing? It's dangerous for you to be playing like that when the well is dried up. Don't you know what it's famous for?"

"Hn? Oh hi, nii-chan!" He smiled innocently and waved, but still kept at his activity. "What's goin' on?"

The shinobi shook his head slowly, realizing it was probably better not to frighten seven or eight year-olds out of their skulls with scary legends. "Have you seen Link go by? Maybe taken off just past you?"

The boy's face puckered, and he furrowed his lip trying to recall.

"Mmmmmnope. Haven't seen him go by here. Why? Ya chasing him?"

Sheik paused at the statement then nodded silently.

"Weeeeellllll, keep lookin' for him, nii-chan, he'll show! Nothing's gonna plow _him_ down! I heard from my dad he beat an entire mountain!"

"A dragon. …But you're right. Still, I think I should find him quickly before he…hurts himself. He just came out of a coma."

The boy turned his head with wonder as he swung back and forth from the wooden base hanging over the well. His tiny legs barely touched the white rim. "…Wuzza coma?"

Sheik furrowed a slender blond eyebrow. "…Nevermind. Look, just please come away from that well before you fall and get hurt."

"Awww, fine…" The small boy pouted as he loosely stepped down from the edge of the large hole. "You're no fun, nii-chan. When was the last time you got to act like me?"

Sheik crossed his arms curiously. "When was the last time I got to act like a little kid, you mean?"

"OI." The boy pointed at the slender ninja with his finger like it was a lethal weapon. "I am _not_ a little kid." He seethed with about as much evil as a cute and tiny little creature like him could contain.

This triggered a tiny whistle to escape Sheik's lips from under the cowl, and a tiny smirk to soon replace it.

"I lost almost all my baby teeth, I'm not little."

"Yes, yes…"

Aref was like the village puppy to Sheik and Impa and pretty much everyone else. He was a cute and tiny little creature that thought he didn't have anything more to fear than the Hero of Courage did. But that still didn't keep everyone from worrying for his safety.

The boy slowly shambled farther away from the well…

…And that was when everything went wrong.

Both Sheik's and Aref's eyes shot alive as the very earth around them began to rumble violently. Poor Navi was with them, and her wings were struggling to keep composure with the wild shaking going around.

"Ahh! N-nii-sama, wh-what's happening?..." The boy spoke up, his young green eyes now dappled with fright.

The Sheikah grunted with nervousness, and stood fast and firm while the vibrations worsened. The tremor eventually became so violent that large pieces of the windmill and various buildings began crumbling and collapsing, posing a threat to any villagers just underneath. Everyone was scampering everywhere.

The sky darkened. Lightning began to break and lash about. It was as if the evil, wicked world that Ganondorf created had finally found them. Finally found Kakariko Village.

"I…I can't take it!" Aref screamed, trying to take off away from the area.

"Stop! Stay close to me!"

He scampered off, making an effort to pass the well again and find his family, but he was violently stopped by an invisible, unrelenting force. His body froze up, paralyzed. He was two feet away from the gaping maw of the depleted well.

'_C-can't…move…'_ He thought, struggling to breathe over the feeling that something was wrapped around his ribs, crushing his lungs. Hot tears began to pour down his face – a frightened little kid after all.

"Aref! Hang on, I'm coming for you!" Sheik sprinted towards the terrified child, adrenaline fueling his speed, but his trip was cut short when the framework of the wooden holder above the well simply snapped and flew towards him. It would have been enough to end his life if his reflexes weren't as good. He ducked just under the brunt of the debris, but ultimately got stopped by what must have been the very same force pinning the young boy down.

Large cracks emerged and opened like wounds around the well that Aref was so dangerously close to. A ghastly stir permeated the sky.

"_Free…"_

A mucky, bubbling gargle echoed up from the bottom of the deep, black, hollow well. The cursed well. The horrible gargling noise got louder and louder.

"_Freeeeeee…FREEEEEEEE!"_ The echo, a voice that sounded of something that could barely breathe, turned into a blood-curdling scream.

A putrid, almost acidic-looking smoke poured out of the brim of the well. It flew everywhere. It drifted over Aref and seemingly swallowed him. It scaled the nearby houses and structures, and in half a minute, it had covered the entire neighborhood. The gas seemed to move en masse – like something that could think on its own, manipulating its body to and fro.

The buildings it passed over were instantly set ablaze in hellish fire. The village burned with intensity; savage and unrelenting. Whatever evil had wretched its way free and crawled out of that well: it liked its hobby.

The wicked fog finally quitted the village and stormed off over the gate up towards the graveyard, leaving easily half of its wake a disastrous mess.

The fires continued their destructive duties on the roofs of the nearby houses, though now not nearly as serious as when what had spontaneously conjured them was present.

Sheik's body was his own to move again, and he looked around, in shock and speechlessness, at the mayhem wrought in such little time. A platoon of Ganondorf's finest brethren couldn't do this much damage. Sheik sensed something supernatural in the air.

He turned to face the well, and his heart skipped a distraught beat when he saw what was dangling just a few feet above the hole that looked like it could swallow him at any given moment.

Aref's body was hanging off of nothing in mid air over the well, limp and unresponsive. His eyes and mouth were frozen open, displaying an ever-horrified face, the true epitome of fear.

Yet what was holding him continued, clinging him upright like the miserable puppet of a hidden hand. Flaunting its prize to Sheik.

"Aref…" Sheik exhaled, unsure if he had already failed protecting him or not. It was unclear to read if he was alive or dead.

A mocking echo laughed and jeered, swaying the small body back and forth to make it look as if it was still writhing.

"_Help me; please…please help meeeee…"_ The lips of the young boy were openly being forced to move as if he were speaking, and the voice was obviously not his own. _"Pleeeaaasssse…don't let the monster eat me…"_

Sheik glared heatedly up at the unstill air surrounding the boy a bit clearer now, swaddling him above the well.

"You're good at spreading fires and wrecking buildings, but you're no ventriloquist, I see."

The writhing movements compelling Aref's limp body ceased, and a gust of wind howled up from underneath in a maddened laugh.

"_This shoddy town's time has tolled and toiled…faaaar too long."_ The ghastly voice was no longer playing through the Aref's lips. The spirit had apparently given up the rouse. _"Kakariko Village belongs to me now."_

Beads of sweat began to show on Sheik's face. _'Where the hell is Link?...'_ He thought in distress.

"I don't know whether to call you a spirit or a demon, but this village isn't yours to do with as you please. I suggest you crawl back down that well and don't turn your nose up here again."

"_With pleasure…"_ The wisp seemingly inclined to the offer. _"…But it does get rather lonely down there…being cooped up for so long… I don't suppose you'd mind if I…took a friend with me."_

Aref's levitating body began to sink down closer to the well.

Sheik shot forward in a burst of speed, drawing a hidden hand full of throwing needles from his side pouch as he advanced.

"Yeah. I _do_ mind, actually!"

He was right up with Aref's face before he was assaulted by a barrage of phantasmal punches to the face and torso. After being forcefully held in one spot and beaten on for a while, the battered shinobi was picked up and hurled solid against the brick wall that the carpenter crew was working on. The force of the impact knocked the wind out of his lungs.

"_Frail!"_ The echo taunted. _"If you want this kid, take this kid. Go on. Take him from me."_

Sheik brushed a bit of blood from his head, already feeling the bruises starting to emerge. He hung his head in shame. There was nothing he could do for Aref.

All he could do was watch from the lowly mound of rubble; curse his miserable defeat as he watched that poor innocent child – somebody's baby, whom everyone had known as the 'village puppy' – ripped out from under his arms and drag down into the deep dark recesses of the well by a nameless evil.

He watched Aref's ankles slip in.

Then his legs.

Then his torso.

And his shoulders.

Slowly…slowly he sank in.

But for a moment, through Sheik's hazy vision, he thought he saw Aref stop at his neck. And the wraith's whisper came one last time.

"_You… You're a Sheikah, aren't you?"_ It inquired. _"…I recognize the icon on your chest piece. That eye. That damned eye. That is a Sheikah eye, yeeeeesss."_

"Give him back…" The ninja sputtered from the ground. "Give…him…"

"_No…no…you couldn't be one of them…"_ It still persisted. _"Sheikah couldn't possibly go down so easily… Sheikah couldn't possibly be so frail…"_

"…My name is _Sheik._" He gave a thorough response. He watched Aref's horrified face still peer lifelessly back at him from the rim of the now not-so-allegedly haunted well.

The voice had paused. Stopped. But the chill continued to cling to the atmosphere.

Finally, _"You think that you deserve that title? Where are the others. Find me a real challenge… That is…if you want to see this young face…again."_

"You're…hah…you're looking at the last of the Sheikah."

"_Gone? All of them? Then coming to the surface was meaningless on my part. I spent centuries planning to settle the score with that clan. Now that they're all gone, what do I have to have died for?"_

"How…do you know my clan?" Sheik tried to sound interrogating.

"…_I did not know the Sheikah. The Sheikah…knew __**me.**__"_ The clouds above the well thickened and swirled, and a stroke of lightning cracked across the horizon, lighting up for a brief moment the phantasmal face of a horrid creature right next to Aref's. Sheik only had time enough to make out the lifeless white eyes with no pupils and a horrid ear-to-ear smile with jagged teeth inside. When the lightning ceased, so did the illumination of the twisted face. _"Those who fail to remember history are only doomed…to repeat."_

"Whose? Whose history?" Sheik asked in a shaken voice.

"_If you really want to learn that history…"_ The young boy's head was dragged down out of view in great speed, and the sound of metal sliding open and slamming closed at the bottom of the well was heard. _"…You'll have to CORRECT IT, FOOL!"_ A hideous laugh carried away with the wind as Sheik overheard the sound of flowing water bubble up.

The well was filling.

By the time Sheik managed to stagger over to the edge of the hole, it was already up to the brim.

That was it then. …The young boy was lost.

The shinobi clutched his wounded ribs in pain and grief and fell to his knees to reach down to the water and succeed in touching nothing more than his own mere reflection.

"Aref…"

He closed his eyes, and broke into a mournful silence.

* * *

Navi continued fluttering, trailing the direction of the evil cloud that had passed through Kakariko Village. Honestly, was there any part of this little town on the edge of Hyrule that _wasn't_ cursed?

Most of the townsfolk had already fled the fires. Like that would help them from whatever else the Goddesses didn't bless. She went half the day searching for her partner, and now it was dusk and the sun was dying. Hopefully they could make it to Lon Lon Ranch in time. If not, they were at the mercy of the _other_ dead things that came out at night. The world as Ganondorf made it was – as to frankly be expected – significantly more dangerous than it was seven years back.

Navi was now at Kakariko Graveyard. That's where she shortly spotted a familiar figure down below, crouched down over a tombstone.

"Link! Hey!" She called in relief that she found him, and sped toward his position. She saw that he wasn't wearing his tunic, and recognized all the bandages wrapping around various parts of his arms and torso.

When she got close enough, she could hear him huffing and panting vividly. He had, as it turned out, a bloody forehead, and the tombstone he was down in front of was more cracked than all the others. But it was still new enough that it bore a reflective sheen. Link was glaring weakly eye to eye with his mirror image.

'_**Settle down, won't you.'**_ The reflection ordered him._** 'The constant smashing of your skull against graves will not scare me out of your head. You only hurt in yourself this manner, and it's hardly productive of you.'**_

"I'm sick…hah, hah…of hearing your voice… Get out." Link ordered back.

'_**WOULD that I could. But alas, I cannot. Now we are brain roomies, sharing the same storage space. How fun does that sound? It sounds fun, yes?'**_

Link grimaced at the reality, likely as his dark counterpart had predicted he would. "How can this be _happening_ to me? What do you want from me? Did you come for revenge?"

"Uuuh…Link?" Navi would flutter no closer to him until she was sure it was safe. He didn't exactly seem right.

"Wha! Who's there? Stay back!" Link jerked up, slouching slightly from his self-inflicted injuries.

"Woah! Relax, relax! It's just me! It's Navi! Don't you remember?"

Link instantly recognized the orb of light and backed down from his aggressive stance.

'_**Oh hey. We get a snack, too?'**_ The voice in his head responded. _**'It looks…minty.'**_

"What does it take to get you to stop _talking?_" Link snapped. Navi misunderstood whom the message was for and consequently started shuddering shamefully.

"I…uhm…sorry? I talk too much sometimes?..." She murmured timidly.

"Ah, n-no, not you Navi, it's—"

'_**It cannot hear me, hero. I am not **_**real**_** to it.'**_

Link tried to insist. "Navi, can't you hear him?"

The fairy's light dimmed a little. "…Him…who?"

"That evil black moblin I fought back at the Water Temple!"

'_**Hahahaaaaawait what? Did you just call me a…a moblin?'**_

"I can hear him just perfectly, can't you?" Link persisted, getting more desperate to let Navi know who had escaped with them alive.

'_**If I am, 'tis a devilishly **_**handsome**_** moblin you sparred…'**_

"Link, are you _feeling_ okay?"

He looked at the ground. "I…hit my head."

"Uuuh yeah…I…noticed…?"

"I can't explain it to you right now, Navi," he added, "but I think maybe if we stay _reeeaaally_ quiet, he'll just go away."

Navi tried to compute her partner's lack of sanity and respond civil. "…Sure Link. Let's do that… …You know… …And maybe he'll just go away…"

They both took a moment of silence, convenient in fact that they were in a graveyard, and roughly two minutes of solitude went by before Link finally whispered, "I think we did it, Nav. …I think it's gone."

Five seconds.

'_**Pssssst. Maybe the sprite kin can hear me if I get reeeaaally loud. …Let's try. **_**SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!**_**'**_

The voice in Link's head mustered positively all that it could into a heinous, foul screech.

The outburst in turn made Link freak out and do a shout of his own, which in turn made Navi jingle like a wind chime in the middle of a twister.

After everyone settled down, Link announced, "Now I have a migraine on the _inside_ of my head too."

"Well," Navi replied, "maybe you wouldn't have to worry about it so incredibly much if you didn't scream in random outbursts like that."

His jaw could have literally dropped. "No, it wasn't my fault, it was—"

'_**Ahm. Permit me, but I think some reintroductions are in order. Last time we didn't meet and greet on the best of terms, what say we try and start over, hmm?'**_

"…You're serious?..."

"I'm serious about what?"

"Na-Navi, just, _SHHHH._" Link clutched his head from trying to keep track of who he was actually speaking to.

The fairy just shrugged her wings and found a tombstone to perch on and stretch them across.

'_**After all, we are rather **_**stuck**_** with each other; why not give each other the basics, yes? Names, backgrounds, sexual orientations, your loved ones for me to butcher on those rainy days we don't get along~…?'**_

"Forget it. I don't want to have anything to do with you."

'_**Begging your pardon but the die is cast. The contract was quite simple. I become a part of you; you become a part of me. Twilight Realm regulations, I'm afraid.'**_

"I never agreed to any 'contract', darkling."

'_**Nooo?... Ahh hell, I did it to survive. Sometimes sacrifice is key. Your mind, body, and soul just became the sine qua non of **_**both**_** our destinies. So don't dare blow it on your life now, kid.'**_

"Oh, so now that you're a parasite you think you can call the shots for both of us?"

'_**Mmmm no? Though now that it crosses our mind, that would be rather fun… But moreover, think of me as an upgraded version of your little pixie…err…whatever it is?'**_

"She's a _fairy,_ and her name is _Navi._" Link sneered.

'_**Riiiiiight a fairy. …How…very very…(COUGH)queer.'**_

"What was that?"

'_**Nu-thiiiiiiiiiiiiiing~.'**_

"Link," Navi called. "You said my name. Should I feel worried?"

"Yes! Uh. No! …Whatever you think!"

'_**Ease up there, Peter Hood, don't give yourself an aneurism too…'**_

Link tried to separate his statements into categories. "Okay, let's try this. To Navi: calm down, you're making me nervous; to the evil voice inside my head: shut up – you are also making me nervous."

"Link, you're scaring me." Navi tried her best to keep the apprehension from stealing away her sanity as well. "Do you think we should stop by Lake Hylia and see the Professor?"

"He's a marine biologist, he can't help us."

"Don't be paranoid. He's a scientist."

'_**And a quack.'**_

"Both of you! Just! Gwaahhh!" Link tugged at his golden hair. It was like Ganondorf had turned Hyrule upside-down, and then it had been turned _wrong_side-up. Like an inverted abnormality.

The suave voice in his head let out an exasperated sigh. _**'Then…I shall start first. Your name is Link, yes? Then…you may address me as Dark Link…or Dark, if you prefer for short.'**_

"I can't call you 'Fake'? Or 'Poser'?" Link tried.

'…_**How eloquent. Do you say that to every other man that parades around in a tacky tunic like a child's bedtime story idol?'**_

"Wah-ah…!" He felt his face flush with indignity. "It is a _forest_ tunic and you—"

He was cut off at the sound of a sharp leap and plunge onto the cobblestone walkway lining the row of graves. It was Sheik, clutching his side with a painful cringe in his expression.

"Sheik?" Link and Navi both called out to him simultaneously. "What happened?" Link added.

"I…something in the village…" He tried to stagger forward, but the strength in his legs ultimately failed him, and he to all fours. "Something got loose…attacked villagers…Aref…"

"Aref?" Link kneeled over and supported his comrade by the shoulders, holding him up steady. "That little kid? What about him?"

Eyes, red and blue, met each other for a moment, then Sheik hung his head with remorse.

"Aref…is dead."

Link felt his heart drop like a stone at his hesitant words. He stared down silently, sympathizing with Sheik's guilt. Like him, he recognized that he wanted to help as many people in Hyrule as humanly possible. And failing was like a chain that inched closer to breaking with every little tug. For a moment, the shock even made him forget about Dark Link. "I…I'm sorry. …I should have been there."

A swift slap across his face ensued. Link put a hand to his stinging red cheek without much reaction. "Yes you should have been there!" He closed his eyes in a tight cringed under the distraught of the Sheikah's tone. "It is your job to _protect_ people." He clarified, easing his tone only a little. "You cannot do that if you flee the scene and run off to cemeteries minutes after you've recovered from a coma. Lots of people lost their homes, and today…someone lost their son."

Link's shoulders slumped as if drained of all energy to hold up.

'_**Ohoho! Slap it back, slap it back, I positively LOVE conflict!'**_ He heard the 'Dark Link' voice rally inside his psyche. He ignored it for now. It wasn't like he could do much other good.

"I'm sorry." He bowed his head to acknowledge Sheik's hurtful words. "Something…shook me. …Something difficult to explain."

The ninja crossed his arms. "Try me."

'_**Aaah, is this the part where you get yourself committed into Hyrule Sanatorium for deciding to talk about the little man living inside your head? Oh please proceed; I would **_**never**_** hear the end of that one…Hmhmhmhm…'**_

"Shut _up_, you wretched demon." Link turned his head and whispered to Dark so that Sheik didn't get the false impression he was talking to him. Finally turning back and fidgeting about to find a sane enough explanation for his odd behavior, he calmly inquired, "Sheik, did Navi ever tell you exactly _what_ we saw when we were in the Water Temple?"

'_**Lovely, 'tis always endearing to be referred to as a 'what'…'**_ Dark's sarcasm persisted.

"She might have said some things," the shinobi replied plaintively without uncrossing his arms, "why?"

"The shadowy monster that looked like me? I think you should know that he's not dead. And that he has a name."

_Now_ Sheik uncrossed his arms. "Where is he?"

Link pointed at his temple. "I feel him, and hear him right around here." He watched his colleague nod, and found relief that he was at least trying to understand. "Oh, and I got this." He unraveled the wrappings on his right hand and revealed the black Triforce insignia branded into his veins.

"Yes, I know."

Link's eyes shot alive. "You did?"

Sheik raised an eyebrow. "Link, do you honestly think that I would wrap those bandages around your hand without noticing?"

"Ah, yeah, of course, silly question…"

'_**I'm funnier.'**_

"But still," Link continued, "you probably already recognize that I'm not exactly the tattooing type."

"Indeed," Sheik took him by the wrist and examined it more thoroughly. "It looks like its pulsating now…almost like a living poison."

'_**Eep! He's touching you~!'**_

More than anything else in the world now – EVEN more than actually being rid of that entity – Link just wanted Dark to _stop talking._ It was already grueling even to imagine how much sleep he was going to lose due to this unnatural parasitism. And how much of his sanity there was to lose before he was exactly one Skull Kid short of a hostile takeover.

It was true what the Sheikah said about his new emblem though – it was throbbing on his hand, and Link felt the burning, tingling sensation.

Finally, Sheik withdrew his hand and stood up. "We'll have time to investigate this later. And we will. Right now, let's worry about stopping whatever came out of the well."

'_**Well, will, well, will…heh, alliterations.'**_

"What do you have in mind, sir?" Link asked his guide.

Sheik pondered for a while, and also remembered what the monster had said regarding history. _'Those who fail to remember history are only doomed to repeat.'_ The answer was right there in those lines. If it wouldn't risk giving away his real identity, Sheik would have kissed the Triforce of Wisdom on his right hand for living up to its namesake.

"Link," Sheik said, grinning beneath his cowl, "listen close. I have a plan. This is what you need to do…"

* * *

'_**So this is what this Sheik person is putting us through: we are supposed to go back in time exactly seven years by relieving ourselves of one of the most powerful weapons on the **_**planet,**_** throw ourselves down to the bottom of a haunted and moreover filthy well to see if we can uncover centuries-old rubbish that has absolutely nothing to do with **_**anything**_** that otherwise matters in life to somehow manage to kill a ghost and rescue some snot-ridden brat that contributes to roughly .005% of the Hyrule populace just because he's someone's SON?'**_

Link was resting his arms behind his head as he continued walking down the long sacred corridor of the Temple of Time. "Yeah that…pretty much covers it."

'_**This Sheik person…or whoever has you running through hoops forwards, backwards, clockwise, and counterclockwise, and all you can honestly tell yourself is 'Yeah that pretty much covers it'?'**_

"Yeah that…pretty much covers it."

For some reason, Link got the feeling that Dark had slapped himself on the forehead in disgust. It made him smile.

'_**Well! 'Tis! Hardly any **_**wonder**_** why you weren't appointed the Triforce of Wisdom, you are an utter buffoon!'**_

"The very same that pounded _you_ into last week…"

The presence lingering in Link's mind vibrated with irritation as he stepped up to the holy Pedestal. It was here that the Master Sword was pulled from its sacred sheath, and here that it would wait until it was needed once again.

With a grunt, Link thrust the blade into the pure rock, and closed his eyes to embrace the rising blue light that beamed around him. For a brief moment it felt as if the weight of the world had disappeared, and then he opened his eyes to find that the standing sword was now taller than he was.

He was a child again.

He had long since gotten used to the strangeness of finding that he could jump back and forth in time, altering his youth and that of all those around him, but now he had to do it with a little problem extra.

Dark was still there. Even when his words didn't echo in Link's head, he felt him. Like a stain on the carpet that you just couldn't scrub out.

But as the Hero of Courage had gotten used to most everything else unnatural for his quest to take back a not-so-screwed-up Hyrule Kingdom, he was already getting used to the certain heaviness he felt hauling a second presence around in his soul. He had already gotten used to Navi, this couldn't turn out…_too_ bad.

'_**So this is the power of the Sword… Curious.'**_ The voice in his head had changed. It also sounded much younger, as if his age had depleted with him.

"Link," Navi spoke, fluttering beside him, "we should go back to Kakariko Village. Sheik wanted us to explore the well before it filled up again. We should get going before the drought ends."

"I hear you, Nav." He answered in his younger voice. "Dark Link, just so you know, we'll be working on a way to get rid of you after our work is done. Is that understood?"

There was a scoff followed by his response. _**'So long as the bloody Sages find a way to do it without slaying me in the process, I will be peachy-keen. I cannot say I am pleased of this circumstance any more than you are. Now can't we hurry this up? My glaring eye is getting twitchy.'**_

"Kakariko Village is still two days from here. Horseback. Let's call Epona and head out after stocking up on supplies."

"Alright, Link. Lead on." Navi agreed.

'_**Oh, and to save you a few trips short of being dragged off to the nearest madhouse…or perhaps the elective poles for the town fool, it may be best to inform you that if you speak with your thoughts I shall be able to hear them just as clearly as if you say them out loud.'**_

Link froze in his tracks, his level of chagrin turning the temperature of the temple down ten degrees. "And you couldn't have told me this earlier _becaaauuse…?_"

'…_**I was having too much fun watching.'**_

"Link? What happened?" Navi asked curious, "What did the voice not tell you earlier?"

He turned his eyes to her in a furrow and answered casually, "That I didn't have to answer it out loud and make myself seem like a raving lunatic."

"Oh…" The fairy searched for optimism. "A-at least…you know you don't have to _now._ …Right?"

The Hylian boy nodded reluctantly.

'_**Agreed. Does the poor soul not have enough on his plate already for which to be held certifiably insane?'**_

"…This is going to be a long two days." His host responded, rolling his eyes in clear disdain. He opened the tall twin doors of the church-like temple and proceeded into the dawning light and down the long stair, passing a long row of mysterious Gossip Stones.

"We should try to make the most of it then." Navi explained as they neared Hyrule Market, still budding and untouched by Ganondorf's power. They continued down the hill towards the laughter, music, and roar of the crowds that gradually became noisier and noisier.

"Easy for you to say," Link sneered, making a swirling gesture with his finger to the side of his head, "you're not the one with the sassy Poe hanging its lantern inside your skull."

He got the vision of Dark Link dropping a jaw. _**'So you've decided that I am a **_**Poe**_** now, have you?'**_

They entered the market from in between two large buildings probably serving as stockrooms or storage houses. The town was a bustling place, filled with people of every different edge of the land, merchants shouting, personal errand boys running amuck for nobles or businessmen, everyone had something to contribute to the lively clamor of the town. It was a shame to have to imagine the entire place seven years from now.

They walked up to a street vendor, passing the slender beggar that had long since spotted them and was now on his knees slapping his hands wildly against his lap. "Please!" He beckoned to the trio. "With C! Please sell me something! With C!"

Link and Navi slowly backed away, eyes the comical size of dinner plates at the sudden disturbance. "I never did understand what he meant by that." Navi muttered as the small group turned to evade the troubled gentleman.

"Let's just leave him before we make him worse." Link answered with a swift tongue. He power-walked away back towards the cobblestone pathway. Soon after, they stumbled upon a shopkeeper managing a stand of miscellaneous goods. The salesman they approached kept his arms crossed, but looked down at Link with a friendly smile.

"Welcome!" He announced with the same glee he supposedly treated all of his customers with. "See anything you like?"

The young boy's eyes scoured his inventory childish charisma, and they stopped at a bottled Recovery Fairy. After the last time he was forced to use one, it went without saying he could certainly use another.

"How much for the fairy?" Link asked, readying his wallet.

"That'd be fifty rupees, plus tax."

He frowned slightly. It seemed a bit pricey considering his age and the slim job availability that came with it, but he more than made his dues looting the monsters he hunted. He rummaged his wallet for a while and then pulled out the shimmering gems necessary for the pay.

He turned away and asked Dark privately, "Do you think I should order the premium package in case you end up trying to kill me in my sleep?"

_**'Why ask me - I am but a dusty old Poe.' **_The voice responded casually, yet clearly unforgetting of his last offense._**  
**_

"You know what?" Link's eyebrow twitched. "Forget I even asked. I'll take _four_ premiums."_**  
**_

"Thank you, come again." The shopkeeper smiled as he handed over the contained glowing pink orb of light. Link nodded his head and departed away with it. As they neared the drawbridge that led out of town, the clamor of the crowd depleting away into the distance, he held up the fairy to a point he was sure that Dark Link could see.

'_Recognize her?'_ He teased in a silent thought, flaunting the jar with the fairy inside.

A dark cloud began welling up around his vision. Dark had apparently caught the reference.

As Link drew his sleek blue ocarina and blew the notes that summoned his horse, Dark sought to impede his concentration by mentioning, _**'Yes, yes it does seem familiar. Much like the fairy you cheated with.'**_

If Link hadn't finished his melody in time, his notes would have cracked at this statement right then and there. _'Ahm. Pardón? Cheated with?'_ He inquired in his head.

'_**Indeed. As soon as I get my physical form back, I call do-over.'**_

Clattering hooves soon sounded in the distance, and Link and Navi both heard the distinct whinny of the bronze steed galloping towards them.

'_It was not cheating,'_ Link corrected temperately, _'this 'buffoon' outsmarted you by preparing before engaging. Where was _your_ fairy?'_

'_**Real men do not use fairies.'**_

'_Apparently _smart_ men do.'_

Epona stopped right next to them and lowered her head gracefully, bowing to greet her owner. Link held a gentle hand up as she came by and lightly brushed her nose. She snorted softly with delight at his touch. He mounted her, gripping her by the mane since he was riding her barebacked so that he wouldn't fall off.

'_**You insist to tell me that because I was not rescued by a pink pixie—'**_

'_Fairy…'_ Link lectured.

'—_**that I am not a smart man because of that.'**_

"Let it go, man." Link spoke out loud this time, shaking his head. "Just let it go."

'_**I most **_**certainly**_** will no—oh that reminds me, mentioning the word 'man' so many times, I have something interesting you might want…er…might **_**need**_** to know. About this Sheik person?'**_

'_What about him, darkling? He's my guide.'_

They began galloping at moderate speed, east back toward Kakariko Village. Navi kept at his side.

'_**When 'he' was close to you. When he was examining my gift. I smelt magic. More specifically…**_**illusionary**_** magic.'**_

Link's ears perked up. _'What are you trying to say?'_

'_**You don't know who **_**'he'**_** really is. Do you.'**_

'_I suppose you do?'_ The boy snapped back. It was outrageous that considering from Kakariko Village to Hyrule, he only had to manage with Dark for two days at most, and yet he's already hearing the thing tell him that he knows his companions better than himself.

He heard his guest chuckle with amusement as they sped up on the trail towards the vast hills of Hyrule Field. '_**Heheha, very well, hero.'**_ the voice only added. _**'Then I shan't spoil the surprise.'**_

**A/N: I apologize if this chapter did not seem a detailed as the others, but as many of you may have guessed, this chapter's sole purpose was to weave Dark Link's personality together to show that he is not only what you would call a sinister bastard; he is, in all actuality, a twisted sinister bastard with a sense of humor.**** It also gives you a foreshadowing of how things will go for Link in the quests to follow.**_**  
**_


End file.
